Clickbait Aesthetics: A Study of Thumbnail Design Strategies and Their Effect on Viewer Behavior
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.63290/jhmsr.v2.i2.51Keywords:
clickbait , social media, Aethetics, YoutubeAbstract
With the rise of online news outlets, many YouTube news channels have gone to great lengths to draw attention with their attractive/clickbait thumbnails. Some thumbnails are deceptive and some are truthful. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of thumbnail designs on YouTube news videos' interest and trust. The method of this study was quantitative research approach and sampling which was used in this study was Purposive sampling. The survey was conducted on Google Forms and data was gathered with the use of a survey. A total of 263 people filled the survey. Out of these, 221 responses were used because these people watch news on YouTube and others don’t. Jamovi software was used to analyze the data. The descriptive statistics, reliability test, one sample t test and chi square test were used. The findings revealed that mislead thumbnail induces more clicks on news videos. This would entail that they raise the short term interest. But, over time people become skeptical when they repeatedly encounter misleading thumbnails. The study also revealed that viewers tend to select videos with misleading thumbnails over honest videos. This occurs despite the fact that misleading thumbnails detract from trust. The trust scale had a good reliability for basic research. Finally, misleading thumbnails get the attention of viewers more easily, and hurt the trustworthiness of the website in the long run. The results of the study indicate that trust in online news is crucial to maintain in the form of honest and ethical thumbnail.
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