When headlines lie, trust dies
Clickbait is the PR world’s next big battleground, says Dustin Chick from South Africa's Razor Public Relations.
Over the past few months, I’ve had more than a few clients ask me the same question: how do we deal with the rise of clickbait in mainstream media? Their concern is real, and the frustration is palpable. What once felt like an occasional irritation now feels like a global trend gathering momentum, driven by platform shifts and fundamental economic pressures.
Sadly, the examples speak for themselves.
Misleading headlines. Annual results of listed companies reported incorrectly - sometimes spectacularly so — with little appetite to address this. ‘News-adjacent’ platforms pumping out AI-generated copy that swings from sensationalist bait to outright disinformation. And increasingly, rage-baiting content designed to provoke rather than inform.
This isn’t just sloppy journalism or an unfortunate by-product of the digital news economy. The real cost is far more damaging: it's the erosion of credibility itself. And once credibility goes, everything else follows.
