Clickbait culture is killing our news

On the 2nd of October 2016, one of the most monumental decisions in the history of Latin America was made. After 52 years of brutal warfare, Colombian citizens voted to reject President Juan Manuel Santos’ peace proposals to end fighting with the guerrilla group, FARC. But I bet you did not hear about this. In fact, I can guarantee the vast majority of people reading this will not have even realised Colombia was in a state of war. Instead, our newsfeeds are plagued with endless drivel on the ins and outs of Rihanna’s sex life, Brangelina’s divorce and most recently Kim Kardashian.

Last week Kim Kardashian was subject to mass media coverage, possibly the greatest of her career (since that video) after her hotel room in Paris was raided by armed robbers. And so, once again, Mrs Kanye broke the internet. Facebook became a minefield of minute by minute Kardashian updates: Kim’s alive, Kanye’s flying over, North is safe, Khloe’s still crying.

Then there was the tsunami of backlash from Kim K’s defence army, pleading with the public to view her as a person, with like, real feelings and emotions and stop criticising the icon of our generation! But this idea of Kim being just a ‘person’ is what I would like to draw on; because that is indeed what she is. Just. One. Person.

Meanwhile in Colombia, millions of citizens have been subject to unimaginably horrific events. Trauma beyond the realms of belief as a result of 52 years (52 years?!) of civil war. That is longer than World War One, The Russian Civil War, Spanish Civil War, Second World War, Korean War, Vietnam War, Gulf War and Bosnian War combined. The lengthy combat has resulted in 6.9 million citizens becoming displaced as refugees. 46,383 people have ‘disappeared’, 29,682 have been kidnapped (actually kidnapped, sorry to rain on your parade, Kim), and over 260,000 people have been killed, the majority of whom are citizens. These citizens are everyday people like you or me. Everyday people with hopes, dreams, aspirations, families. Yet, no one is talking about this.

When researching for this article google produced 137,000,000 results for ‘Kim Kardashian’. For ‘Colombian Referendum’ there were just over one million results and many of them were about Brexit. All this begs the question: why? Why are the 260,000 Colombian lives lost being forgotten whilst the Kardashians weep into their silk handkerchiefs?

One justification many news platforms would give for this is the phenomena known as ‘clickbait’. The print press is (regrettably) a dying species and thus online media has divulged into an intense competition to gain the most views. Unfortunately, this has meant that many keen, up and coming journalists are fixated on grabbing the latest gossip and not the breaking headlines. From Jesus on a crumpet to Hitler-esque cats, one thing is consistent with this evolving medium: it is all awful. Imagine a combination of That’s Life magazine with the script writers of Made in Chelsea and you will start to get an idea of the current state of online media.

Whilst it may seem my views are expressed in jest, this journalistic transition from facts to frivolity is not something to be taken lightly. If our timelines are constantly clogged with Taylor Swift’s latest squeeze, then Kim’s multi-million dollar jewellery stash will not be the only thing lost. We will have lost the very purpose of journalism. A purpose to inform, inspire, promote, provoke. If people actually knew the extent to which cases like Syria, like Colombia, and like many others, are far from existing in isolation then sure as hell is hot they would be angry. And anger, in its purest form, is what will incite change. To assume the world alone is so uninteresting that there is both a need and demand for petty tit-for-tat weeklies on the developments of Pippa Middleton’s glutes is absurd.

If anything, we are living in an age where news has never been so exciting. Real news, that is: Brexit, Trump, Syria, Colombia. There is an overwhelming wealth of exciting content to command the attention of the general public. Though, I cannot deny there is a place for celeb news bulletins (and who does not love when the mundane is turned into a meme?), that should by no means be the leading actor in the world of reporting. Ignoring the likes of something as crucial as the Colombian referendum acts as a form of denial. It might be easier to laugh at ‘Ten Times Donald Trump resembled a hay bale’, but it is far more important to be in the know of developments which could (and most likely will) have global ramifications.

Although the UK may not be directly involved with Colombian events, as citizens living in a stable and war-free country we have a moral obligation to inform ourselves of the catastrophic situations of those abroad. It is about time the media gave Colombian citizens the respect they deserve and provided a voice to the silenced, not to the celebrity.