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The Huffington Post's Sexist Linkbait Strategy

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    The mainstream media is so full of right wing and
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    centrist news coverage that many of us who
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    desire social change take to the internet to find
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    out what's happening in the world
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    The Huffington Post a so called progressive
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    liberal newsblogs that you may have heard of
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    was founded in 2005 by Arianna Huffington
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    she wanted to create a liberal counterpoint to
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    right wing sites such as the Drudge Report
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    I'm all for liberal and progressive news blogs but
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    the problem with HuffPo is they are continually
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    throwing women under the bus
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    the website is dripping with sexism
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    Progressive politics includes issues around
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    racism and sexism, class, disability and
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    sexuality. According to Alexa.com the Huffington
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    Post is the 36th most viewed site in the US
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    It beats out the Wall Street Journal and the LA
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    Times. In order to entice viewers they use a tactic
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    called Link baiting. It's any content within a
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    website design specifically to gain attention.
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    Linkbaiting is an internet marketing strategy that
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    relies on sensationalism to
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    bring in viewers which then
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    generates more ad revenue. In this case they
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    regularly show women's nipples, cleavage and
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    asses in order to entice views, and they even
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    have a section called Celebrity Skin because
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    apparently they aren't shy at all about their
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    objectification. And let's be clear now
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    objectification isn't just showing women's bodies
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    it's using women's bodies to sell something
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    so in this case they're selling "real" news stories
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    but they are bringing people in by talking about
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    celebrity nipples and which female politician is
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    hotter. They often have images of half naked
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    women right next to the "legitimate" news stories
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    Or they will feature a popular news story like the
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    one about the proposed mosque in New York City
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    but they will use a nearly full screen image of a
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    woman's body stratling a stripper pole
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    This is fundamentally an issue about racism in
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    America yet they're using a woman's body to
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    gain attention. Since it's a powerful image to use
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    as linkbait, they used it repeatedly on the site
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    over and over and over and over again
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    This would of course bother me in general
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    but I'm specifically pissed off at this site because
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    they claim to be liberal and progressive
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    when they are clearly not when it comes to
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    women. They have categories like Obama, Sarah
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    Palin, economy, housing, Glenn Beck, the war
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    And then they have an Entertainment section
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    with categories like celebrity skin, sex tapes
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    Lindsay Lohan, Jersey Shore, and these are all
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    readily and easily available, they show up
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    regularly on the home page yet I have to dig
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    in order to find Women's Rights tucked away
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    in the World section, which hardly ever shows up
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    on the front page. Apparently women's rights
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    don't rise to the level of importance as naked
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    celebrities.
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    This is even more apparently on their
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    Activism section which is also tucked away and
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    hard to find because the first three featured
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    articles are of half naked women, you can thank
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    PETA for that one. Because of this it's not
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    surprising that women bloggers on the site are
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    also treated with a similar disrespect. Although
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    there are female and feminist bloggers on
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    Huffington Post they rarely get featured as
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    news items. So if it doesn't make it to the front
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    page or the front page of their respective
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    sections it's going to get very few views because
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    there is so much content filtering through HuffPo
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    everyday. Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting
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    did a study that found that only 23% of featured
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    content was written by women.
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    I know what you are thinking, it was founded by
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    a woman, a powerful woman and yes but Sarah
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    Palin is also a powerful woman and look at how
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    disgraceful she is when it comes to women's
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    rights. Just because it's female fronted doesn't
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    change the fact that it's structurally and
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    institutionally excluding women from the
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    intellectual sphere and most often only featuring
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    women as linkbait. The popularity of this site
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    serves to define progressive politics and they're
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    saying that woman aren't really included in any
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    substantial capacity. Too often websites like the
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    Huffington Post gets to claim a progressive slant
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    while treating women in ways that liberals would
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    be pretty pissed off about if they saw it on Fox
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    News. Any progressive news site worth following
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    clearly and transparently includes race, gender,
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    sexuality, class and ability throughout the entire
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    site, not just when it's convenient for their
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    marketing strategy.
Title:
The Huffington Post's Sexist Linkbait Strategy
Description:

Huffington Post regularly uses women's bodies as an internet marketing strategy to entice viewers and generate ad revenue.
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Video Language:
English
Team:
Feminist Frequency
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