How Clickbait Can Hurt Someone's Reputation

 Being a celebrity can be an amazing experience, I imagine.

Often being in the spotlight has its disadvantages.

When it comes to HR issues, the media can make or break someone’s reputation with a single story.

While some stories might ring true, there are plenty of others that are overemphasized or twisted to make them more interesting to consumers.

Often, these are clickbait articles or content that is meant to serve the purpose of filling up space on a page containing advertisements.

The storyline is spicy, and you open the article and don’t read the piece.

One example that I feel captures this perfectly is a recent story about a British television show producer in his mid-sixties who has been talked about negatively on the news for displaying supposedly inappropriate behavior.

Many headlines to this story make sure to name the man’s wife, who happens to be a big celebrity and paint him in as bad a light as possible.

Once you hear the real story, you’ll understand what I’m talking about.

While the headlines might have you believe this producer is a terrible man who made a woman who worked under him so uncomfortable that she quit, this couldn’t be further from the truth.

What really happened is that the producer side hugged a junior writer at a work event, which she didn’t appreciate.

To display her discomfort, she made a complaint that reached HR.

Human Resources handled the situation by having the man go through some sensitivity training, which is what she requested.

The producer followed through with the situation, and the woman who made the complaint was appreciative of his effort to learn from the situation and attempt to change.

This story is not an interesting one, but at least it has a happy ending, right?

Unfortunately, a simple story has been turned into a negative one.

Headlines exaggerate what happened by using strong language that would have you believe he did much more than giving her a side hug.

Now, the public receives this man as a bad individual instead of a responsible one who was willing to make the changes necessary to move past his mistake.

The junior writer sounds like she is exaggerating her situation.

All just so, consumers will be forced to look at some advertisements on a page.

By the time the media outlets correct the story, the problem lingers, and reputations are damaged.

I understand that the media needs to make their money somehow, but doing so at the expense of another human being hardly seems like an ethical thing to do.

Rather than prioritize making money as quickly as possible, many news companies would find their consumers like gossip.

It is not just the media's fault; it is the consumer as well.  

Instead of reading about how a man gave a woman a side hug, we can spend our precious time learning about world events and getting the information we need to vote in the upcoming elections.

If you take any lesson away from this, remember that not everything you see on the internet is what it seems.

Headlines are meant to capture your attention, but they don't always have an accurate story to tell.

While you might not be able to tell, an article is clickbait before you open it, try to stop nonsense like this from becoming a popular story by avoiding links to stories that are obviously skewed or embellished with deceptive content.

We all love our gossip, though.

But at what expense?