Clickbait headlines with exaggerated information are an example of media manipulation. Manipulations are sometimes done unconsciously, or specifically to draw attention to the scandalous title of the text.

Along with clickbait headlines, you can often see hate speech when the region or country of origin is added to the bad deeds in the headlines, even though it has nothing to do with them. Such an example can be seen on the “Volyn News” website in the title of the news “Distracted attention with a 500 hryvnia bill: in Lutsk, a native of Poltava defrauded saleswomen in coffee shops.”

Wishful thinking without further clarification is also a sign of manipulation. For example, the headline “PrivatBank will pay 1,200 euros to Ukrainians” is a baseless generalization, because not all Ukrainians can receive this money. Payments can be received by former prisoners of concentration camps and those who survived the German occupation. Funding is provided by the German government.

Headlines and news about astrologers’ forecasts are also clickbait sites. For example, on the UNIAN website, “”There will be a deadly battle”: the astrologer named the decisive month in the war.” Of course, one cannot immediately predict whether such a forecast will be accurate, because it is not known how everything will turn out. The website refers to an astrologer, who predicts a tough battle in the Russian-Ukrainian war in April-May 2024. In addition, the media refers to the prediction of another astrologer regarding the end of the war, saying that the war may end in 2024. Everyone already knows about the “forecasts” of the Ukrainian blogger and columnist Oleksii Arestovych, who said in 2022 that the war would end in two or three weeks.