Linguistic Strategies in Clickbait Headlines of Online News

Abstract

This article aims to study the linguistic strategies in clickbait headlines of online news. 600 headlines, which are from 6 online news websites that have the clickbait headline, are collected and analyzed. The analysis of linguistic strategies shows that clickbait headlines consist of 3 main-strategies, namely, making suspense strategy, making value strategy, and making participation strategy. Making suspense strategy consists of 5 sub-strategies : using the forward reference, giving less detail, using question, ellipsis some detail, and answer with picture or video. Making value strategy consists of 3 sub-strateies : making the news fresh, making the news relate to the reader, and making the news serious. The result reflects that the headlines of online newshave the different function from the headlines of newspaper news.