Judgment and Clickbaiting

Judgment is exactly what it sounds like, being able to use one’s judgment to discern whether or not a source is credible. An example presented by Jenkins (2009) is that of Wikipedia. The main issue that people have always had with Wikipedia is the fact that articles can be edited by anyone with an account.

I was unsure as to whether it was actually the case so I chose to experiment with editing a page myself. I went to the page dedicated to my former high school and began editing anything that I saw that was incorrect or out of date. I discovered that, yes; you can, in fact, edit any page, unless you are using a proxy server. This led to me believing that judgment is key in an educational context. Without researching appropriately and looking at resources with a critical eye, it is easy to be convinced by false information.

In an article written for nativeadvertising.com, Aaron Taube discusses the cost of “clickbait”. Clickbaiting is the idea of sensationalizing an article or news story in order to gain popularity. Anyone who uses social media is constantly subjected to a barrage of clickbaiting articles. Jenkins’ definition of judgment would ask that when choosing to explore these articles, you must use a critical eye when examining these sensationalized news reports.

Taube discusses the concept of clickbait and the websites that choose to use it in order to garner attention on social media. While it has been implicitly stated by Daniel McMahon that clickbait is anything that disappoints the reader, Taube suggests that clickbait is in the eye of the beholder. Therefore, it is up to the individual to use their judgment when determining whether an article is merely clickbait, or actually worth engaging. With this idea in mind, social media and clickbaiting would be something that demands proper judgment and a critical eye.

Supported by Taube and his analysis of clickbaiting, I believe that judgment is important in today’s digital age, thanks to all of the false news reports and unbelievable stories. Therefore, Jenkins is correct in believing that judgment is a crucial skill for people within the digital age to possess.

Works Cited

Jenkins, H (et al). (2009) "Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21^st Century". The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Reports on Digital Media and Learning. The MIT Press. Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Taube, A. (2015, August 12). The True Cost Of Clickbait. Retrieved December 6, 2015.