Earlier this week a paper that shall go unnamed released a report of panic and confusion concerning Rogue One and reshoots. This is just latest report concerning future blockblusters and reshoots to be blown out of proportion and using a tiny bit of correct information to make things seem dire and it all seems to be related to generating clicks and views. Why are we letting them manipulate us, what is clickbait and what sources should we listen to?
The first thing we need to understand is what clickbait really is. The common misconception is that its a leading title to entice someone to read an article, however this isn’t true. Any title should be structured to make the reader want to know more of the story, without giving away the entire story. Clickbait titles lead the reader but the story has no substance. And example would be “You won’t believe who is in the next Star Wars!” and the answer is the only part that is relevant. This is merely a way to increase clicks with no substance.
So if we know that clickbait titles are we can avoid them, however there is another type of clickbait we need to look for and that is the sensational rumor. The rumors around Rogue One reshoots out of the paper we won’t mention are a great example of this. The reshoots were already planned, the fact that an early cut is ready in May when the movie comes out in December is AWESOME, that means they have more time to tighten and strengthen the film. It was during this period that we got the Poe we love now from The Force Awakens. This type of clickbait is worse than the other because it pushes a false narrative that isn’t supported by actually facts and it sensationalizes information that is true.
We must also look at the source of the information when read these stories. How many supposedly legitimate entertainment websites ran with the story yesterday? Why when they knew the source was not trustworthy did they flood social media with information they could not confirm and knew it to likely be incorrect? What was the purpose? In the end actual sources such as Starwarsnewsnet.com and Makingstarwars.net refuted the hyperbole and got to the truth. Reputable sources that have provided quality information before should be the only ones picked up by other sites and maybe in the future we can avoid days like yesterday.