You’ll never believe what this journalism professor said about clickbait articles

RINDGE, N.H. – Clickbait articles have become a commonplace strategy for content creators ever since search engines like Google, Bing, and AltaVista have prioritized website traffic in their search algorithms.

Despite their popularity, however, one journalism professor from Franklin Pierce University has come forward to heed a dire warning to internet users about these ambiguous online articles.

Doctor Paul Girardi, the head of the journalism department at this small liberal arts college, has a lengthy resume to include time as a reporter at the Bangor Daily News out of Maine, managing editor at the Wyoming Tribune Eagle, and host of the now defunct cryptids podcast, The Pod People Podcast.

Girardi has been a longtime advocate for journalistic integrity and has been a powerful voice in lobbying for the return of these standards among the mainstream media outlets.

“Journalism is a cornerstone of democracy,” said Girardi. “Without free press, we face the very real possibility of losing our rights. The sad reality is that our national media outlets have succumbed to bias and corporate donors.”

The professor went on to say that it’s because of shoddy journalistic standards and the greed of corporations that we’ve seen the rise of clickbait and fruitless articles.

“It’s all about the clicks,” Girardi said. “You don’t even need to put anything in substance in your articles anymore. Why try and educate the public on issues that matter to them when we can fill the page with fluff no one cares about while bringing in ad revenue?”

(On a completely unrelated note, our editor would greatly appreciate it if you’d interact with the ads on this page to help boost our revenue.)

Girardi also claims that the media’s fall from grace was due in part by the government because if they force the networks to push propaganda on the public rather than allow the spread honest information, the public becomes easier to control. He also blames the implementation of the 24-hour news cycle for the rise of pundits who spew propaganda over honest journalists.

“Journalists used to be respected in this country,” said Girardi. “Look at Walter Cronkite, Tom Brokaw, Eddie Adams, or Margaret Bourke-White. Those were real journalists who put honesty above profit. Now every news station has to be on all the time. News isn’t news anymore, it’s entertainment.”

And while it may seem like we’re currently living in a world that simply moves from one catastrophe to another, Girardi says not all is lost. He said that if you take the time to pull your nose out of your phone and avoid the inevitable spiral into depression and despair, you’ll notice there’s still a lot of good in this world.

“Things suck right now, I get that,” said Girardi. “And the media doesn’t help with that. But put the phone away, turn off the TV, and shut the laptop. Go outside for a walk. Take a hike or go for a drive. The world is a beautiful place filled with beautiful people. I think we get so caught up in the rapid movement of our daily lives that we sometimes forget that.”

And while the current state of the mainstream media leaves a lot to be desired, you can be rest assured that Alpine 6 Action News will never try to wrap you up in our little media enterprise with shitty clickbait articles (except this one, of course).

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