Twenty years ago, it was still common to go buy bread and a newspaper. Paper required slow reading, turning the pages with your fingers, and having a pencil handy to fill out a crossword puzzle.

But the economic crisis erupted in the mid-2000s. As the internet grew in homes and social media reached mobile devices, print media faced a crossroads: go digital or risk dying.

By 2024, when digital communication has turned thirty, consumption of print media has fallen to historic lows: only 14% of the Spanish population reads the print press, compared to 42% in 2008. Spaniards prefer to use the internet, but news isn’t our priority either .

Instead, we send messages and browse social media. Networks that, paradoxically, saturate us with rapid and constant information. And so, this “go digital or die” media challenge becomes a constant challenge. Either they manage to stand out from the maze of online content and capture our attention, or their chances of staying afloat are in jeopardy.

The information gap between media and audiences

The media act as intermediaries between current events and public opinion. Journalists are “messengers” who inform us about things we don’t know firsthand: events, wars, or even the results of a soccer match.

Things have changed. Some studies show that most users don’t access the media. Social media and instant messaging apps are our new “messengers.” Only occasionally, if they manage to grab our attention enough, do we click on the news.

This creates an information gap that has already been detected in Spain . While media headlines highlight economic, political, or social news, the public reads and shares news about sports, events, or celebrities. But is it all our fault?

In a saturated and competitive digital environment, economically dependent on views, media outlets try to stand out by achieving what some experts call “consumable journalism.” They use shortcuts and tactics to sell information as compelling, urgent, or unusual, thereby capturing the audience.

These techniques displace journalistic criteria and prioritize marketing and audience preferences so that they can access the news and, therefore, monetize it.

That is to say, while the media used to offer us political, economic, and social topics on their pages, they now also publish interesting facts, shocking videos, and “The Five Things You Do Wrong While Driving .” Because, due to the information gap, they know we’ll find and click on those stories, even if they don’t appear on their front pages.

The headline that sells, but does not inform

Among the techniques most commonly used by the media to grab our attention is clickbait —a luring headline. Clickbait is based on two strategies : the presentation of incomplete, misleading, confusing, or eye-catching information, and the inclusion of sensationalist content.

Incomplete information uses headlines like: “The best products you can’t miss,” “Did you know…?” or “Seven incredible exotic destinations.” They appeal to our rational side and our curiosity to solve the mystery.

Sensationalism appeals to our emotional side: anecdotes, disasters, discoveries, curiosities, advice…

Clickbait is a deliberate strategy that attempts to attract readers and keep them on the page for as long as possible. Initially, it was used by tabloids and pseudo-media outlets, i.e., websites that mimic the appearance of traditional media but are dedicated to misinformation and promoting an ideological agenda through polarization and populism.

However, its expansion into traditional media has called into question both the quality of journalistic content and the trust audiences place in it.

How prestigious media capture our attention

In our study Clickbait contagion in international quality media , promoted by the University of Valladolid and the University of Valencia, we compared the clickbait promoted on the front page of several leading international media outlets, the one that gets the audience’s click and the one that is shared on social network X (formerly Twitter).

The result? The catchy headline isn’t harmless; it’s toxic because it misinforms and blurs the most important information in the news.

The media omits key facts through information gaps or unanswered questions, but it also tries to impress us and create an impact.

Clickbait not only affects irrelevant or anecdotal topics that make it onto the news agenda, but also creeps into political and international news on the front pages. But it’s among the most widely read content, more specifically sports or celebrity-related, that it thrives. Social media, however, doesn’t spread it to the same extent.

This difference between what’s read and what’s shared may be due to the fact that, once we click on these headlines, we realize the deception and don’t spread it. Other authors , however, suggest it could be due to our need to “save face”: we read interesting facts or topics about celebrities (more prone to clickbait ), but we don’t want those around us to know. For this very reason, we share content about politics or social movements, even if we haven’t read it ourselves.

The presence of clickbait in the prestigious press indicates a “contagion effect” in serious media outlets, both in terms of its themes and the way they present them to us. Although it doesn’t dominate these outlets’ offerings or feature heavily on their front pages, it’s on their agendas and it works. A reality in which the media are willing to sacrifice part of their agenda in exchange for retaining us.

This choice has consequences, with a growing trend toward the public distrusting and avoiding the news .

The media are thus moving from an economic crisis to a crisis of relevance . This situation cannot be resolved by forcibly increasing clicks; rather, they must find alternative models to be sustainable and reliable for readers.

On the other hand, the audience, misinformed and manipulated by the false expectations of clickbait , deserves greater attention and media literacy resources to avoid taking the bait.

Author Bios: Alba Diez-Gracia is a Research Support Technician at the University of Valladolid, Dolors Palau-Sampio is Professor of Journalism at the University of Valencia, Iris Sánchez-Sobradillo is a Predoctoral Researcher in Communication and Pilar Sánchez-García is Professor of Journalism both at the University of Valladolid