If you clicked on this story looking for a super-secret news story – thanks! You’ve already proven you are in the top 25 percent of good media users! Now, stick with me for the real tragedy of the other 75 percent …
As a journalism student, it was always impressed upon the group the importance of the inverted pyramid – put the most important information at the top of the article because people can stop reading at any point. But in today’s age of information overload, readers don’t even go that far.
In the article appropriately titled “Social media users probably won’t read beyond this headline, researchers say,” Penn State University found that 35 million news links were shared on Facebook and 75 percent of the time they were shared without the link being clicked upon and read.
Even more worrisome, Medium.com shared that 70-80 percent of social media users will read the headline and then scroll the comments to see the opinions of others without reading the article.
Why is this important? First: it breeds misinformation! If important details are shared in the article as to WHY something happened, what is being done to respond, or how others are affected, the headline will clearly never summarize it all. If a statistic, news report, or video snippet seems suspect, it probably is.
Secondarily, as a business, understand that your social media content, newsletters, and press releases are primarily being consumed in headlines, photo captions, and comments. Be aware to make the best use of your time and resources and plan accordingly.
However, don’t give up on providing the full story for those who are wise enough to read on. Understanding a topic requires thorough review of the entire article, asking questions, looking for additional sources, and thinking critically. With that in mind, if you have questions about projects and services provided by the Partnership and our goals for 2025, please reach out. The entire staff is happy to provide data and information to you as our members and to the general public.
We aren’t well-informed when we jump to conclusions based on headlines and other people’s comments!
And if you made it to this point in the article, congratulations. You’ve proven yourself to be one of the very few who consider the entire content of an article before responding, sharing, or commenting. Thank you for being truly informed about the full story.
Nicole Haas, MIOP is the brand director for the Greater Freeport Partnership. She can be reached at nhaas@greaterfreeport.com or 815-801-3676
