Original article (in Montenegrin) was published on 17/01/2022
Political topics can often be used to fuel national tensions. A simple announcement in the title suggesting that some people are endangered, and here are the clicks. This time, the so-called minority government was in focus.
The website Borba published a text, equipped with the following title:
“RTCG finds out: URA proposes minority government to expel Serbs from power!”
They published the same news on their Facebook page.
Minority government: modifying the truth
In the text, Borba refers to RTCG whose news they shared. As it is stated, the minority government would be composed of URA, SNP and minority parties without the representatives of DPS and DF. On the website of RTCG, the title is slightly different:
URA is most likely proposing the formation of a minority government tomorrow?
Borba completely took over the text of the Public Service website, but the title is, to put it mildly, debatable. Namely, RTCG did not point out that URA is doing this to “remove Serbs from power”, but in order to “get out of the political crisis”.
Since Borba shared the unofficial news of another website, to which it refers in the title, and added an incorrect statement, we give this publication the following ratings: “misinformation” and “clickbait”.
The rating “misinformation” is given to a media report that contains a “mixture” of facts and inaccurate or semi-true content. In such cases, the media does not need to be aware of the inaccurate information published along with the truth. Also, this rating is given to reports that have false attributions or titles that do not reflect the text in terms of the accuracy of information.
“Clickbait” rating is given to a media report whose title has no basis in the text that follows. Such texts and articles aim to attract consumers’ attention with their sensationalist titles, promising content that does not actually exist, and they are mostly created out of financial interest, i.e., due to increased readership.
