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News & Media Literacy

11th Grade Lesson Six: News & Media Literacy

Clicks for Cash

They all show examples of advertisements.

What is an advertisement? Who usually makes them?

Advertisement is a message that promotes a product, service, opportunity, or event using television, the internet, billboards, or other public spaces. Advertisements are usually created by paid

Advertisers

Advertisers, who are hired by the company who owns the product or service and who want to increase their sales.

Did You Know?

Advertisers also have to pay.

They pay to place their ads in places where people will see them. The price depends on how many people will end up seeing the ad. Ad space in a newspaper, with small circulation, can be cheap. But ad space during the Super Bowl, when millions of people are watching, can be really, really expensive (CBS charged $5.25 million for just one 30-second spot in 2019!).

One place that ads have become really common is the internet.

Where do you typically see ads on the internet?

Some examples include:

Pop-ups, emails, the space next to articles on websites, and their social media feed ("native ads").

Whenever you see an ad on a website, the publisher of that website has been paid by the advertiser to place it there.

Publisher (website)

Publisher is the person or company that creates a website and controls the content on it

How do you think publishers set the price for ad space?

If it's usually based on how many people will see the ad, how do they figure that out?

There are two common ways that it is calculated:

Clicks: the advertiser pays every time someone clicks the ad.
Impressions: the advertiser pays every time someone sees the ad (i.e., views the page with the ad).

Let's review that process again...

Let's review one of these ways that publishers get paid: clicks. But ... this way that publishers make money has led to all kinds of consequences, both intended and not.

Explore:

You've seen ads online before. Sometimes they're really obvious.

Where is the ad or ads on this site?

The ad for rain boots is obvious because it says "20% off" and "shop now," but that the other ads might not be as obvious. They're not ads for products, they're clickbait!

Did You Know?

Clickbait is trying to get you to click to generate money for the publisher, but also to take you to another site where you can be shown even more ads. And if the clickbait is really compelling, you might even share it on social media or with other people, which gets more people to come to the site. This makes money for the publishers, but it can also create big problems when it comes to news and information.

Activity

All About the Money?

Complete part 1 by yourself or with the whole class (if applicable). (Make a copy of google doc to fill in sections)

Copy of Grade 11 - Clicks for Cash - All About The Money? Student Handout

Directions:

Complete Part 1 of the All About the Money? worksheet with the class or by yourself.

Review BOTH resources listed below and answer the questions on the All About the Money worksheet on page 1 and 2.

Review BOTH resources below:

- Watch: How Do Fake News Sites Make Money?
- Listen or read: We Tracked Down a Fake-News Creator

What did these two resources say about clickbait?

Resource 1: According to the video, how do fake news sites make money?

Here are some example responses:

Fake news stories draw attention for you to click on them.
Each click of a story makes money for the website creator.
Publishers that run the ad get pennies per click; popular stories can make a lot of money.
Media firms (people who sell online advertising) make a profit … but so do fake news sites.

Resource 2: Why does Coler make fake news?

Here are some example responses:

He says he got into fake news to “highlight the extremism of the white nationalist alt-right” and that his goal was to “publicly denounce those stories as fiction.”

He says it wasn’t initially about money but to show how easily fake news spreads.
But later he found he could make money off the fake news stories.
Coler created a company, Disinfomedia, which now owns several fake news sites.

How might fake news stories gain popularity?

Here are some example responses:

The stories cover existing conspiracy theories or belief systems.

It doesn’t matter if they’re not accurate or true; people will click on things they want to believe.

Why does Coler think fake news is not going away?

Here are some example responses:

Even though Google stopped running ads on one of Coler’s sites, there are hundreds of other ad networks he could use to make money.

It doesn’t matter if they’re not accurate or true, people will click on things they want to believe.

He believes it will continue to be hard to tell which sites are accurate versus fake.

Clickbait can lead people to read and share fake news stories, which leads to the spread of misinformation.

Misinformation

Misinformation is false or inaccurate information, especially that which is intended to deceive.

Why do you think the spread of misinformation might be a problem?

Misinformation can have several negative effects:

It can lead people to make uninformed decisions (political elections, health decisions, etc.).
It can lead to more disagreement and divisiveness between people.
It can lead to injustices if it prevents people from holding the government or other institutions accountable for their actions.