clickbait
/ˈklɪkˌbeɪt/A title written purely to tempt you into opening an article that never lives up to it.
Example: Half of that site is pure clickbait these days.
C120 words · Advanced
News & Media vocabulary — C1
News and media vocabulary such as clickbait, misinformation and fact-check, plus whistleblower, embargo and libel. Words for discussing how news can go wrong.
20 questions
Words in this set
20misinformation
/ˌmɪsɪnfərˈmeɪʃən/False claims that spread widely, usually shared by people who genuinely believe them.
Example:
A wave of misinformation spread through the group chats.
credibility
/ˌkrɛdəˈbɪlɪti/The quality of deserving to be believed and trusted by other people.
Example:
Repeating rumours damages the credibility of any news channel.
fact-check
To check whether a claim or piece of information is actually true before it is published or believed.
Example:
Journalists fact-check every quote before printing a story.
disinformation
/dɪˌzɪnfərˈmeɪʃən/False information spread deliberately, usually to deceive people.
Example:
The country accused its rival of spreading online disinformation.
defamation
/ˌdɛfəˈmeɪʃən/The act of damaging someone's reputation by saying or publishing false things about them.
Example:
The celebrity sued the magazine for defamation.
retraction
/riˈtrækʃən/A public statement taking back something that was previously said or published, usually because it was wrong.
Example:
The newspaper printed a retraction after getting the facts wrong.
embargo
/ɛmˈbɑrɡoʊ/An official agreement that certain news cannot be published until a set date or time.
Example:
Reporters agreed to an embargo on the story until Monday.
whistleblower
/ˈwɪsəlˌbloʊər/A person who reveals secret or wrongful information about an organisation, usually to the media.
Example:
A whistleblower leaked the documents to a national newspaper.
gatekeeping
The practice of controlling what information the public gets to see, especially by editors and news organisations.
Example:
Critics say social media has reduced traditional media gatekeeping.
attribution
/ˌætrɪˈbjuʃən/The naming of the source of a piece of information.
Example:
The story ran with no attribution at all.
dateline
/ˈdeɪtˌlaɪn/The line at the start of a report giving place and date.
Example:
The dateline said Geneva but the reporter was in London.
stringer
/ˈstrɪŋər/A part-time reporter working in one place for a distant paper.
Example:
Their only stringer in the region filed twice a week.
masthead
/ˈmæstˌhɛd/The part of a paper listing its title and senior staff.
Example:
Her name reached the masthead at thirty-four.
newsworthy
/ˈnuzˌwɜrði/Interesting or important enough to be reported.
Example:
Nothing about the meeting was remotely newsworthy.
agenda-setting
The power of the media to decide what people think about.
Example:
The chapter on agenda-setting is the only one anyone quotes.
framing
/ˈfreɪmɪŋ/The way a story is presented to suggest one interpretation.
Example:
The framing did more work than any single false claim.
redact
/rɪˈdækt/To remove sensitive parts of a document before publishing.
Example:
They had to redact two thirds of every page.
libel
/ˈlaɪbəl/A published statement that unfairly damages someone's reputation.
Example:
The libel case cost more than the paper earned that year.
newsprint
/ˈnuzˌprɪnt/The cheap paper that newspapers are printed on.
Example:
The cost of newsprint closed more titles than the internet did.
