Wrote: Etrit Rexhepi
Articles have been published with the title, "Vote embezzlement: KAS asks CEC to investigate counters".
Articles titled like this were published by the media "ekonomiaonline.com”And“infosot.com".
What's wrong with the content?
The news photo shows the emblem of the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) in Kosovo, while the content of the news makes it clear that we are dealing with developments that occurred in Albania.
The photo shows the logo and official name of CEC, placed on an office wall. The name is written in three languages (Albanian, Serbian and English), and below it is the official website of this institution. Around it are two symbols with the map of Kosovo and white stars, which are part of the emblem of the institutions of Kosovo.
Unlike the title and the view that the photo shows, the location of the event is clarified in the headline of the news, when it is stated that, "The Complaints and Sanctions Commission has asked the chairman of the Central Election Commission of Albania, Ilirjan Celibashi, to investigate the vote counters from the May 11 elections."
What does it show that the article reports on a decision related to the CEC of Albania?
The institution responsible for organizing elections in Kosovo and Albania, has the same designation in both countries, namely the Central Election Commission (CEC).
Emblem of the CEC in Albania:
Meanwhile, the Complaints and Sanctions Commission (KAS) mentioned in the article titles is the competent body for reviewing administrative complaints and imposing sanctions for violations of the electoral law (see here), in Kosovo designated as the Electoral Complaints and Appeals Panel (ECAP).
Which means that publishing such an article, where the title does not specify the place where the presented decision was made and the photo shows the emblem of the Kosovo CEC, may create the wrong impression in the reader that the event took place in Kosovo.
To further confirm that we are dealing with events that occurred in Albania, hibrid.info has researched through the search engine "Google", with the keyword "kas", for content from the last 24 hours (see here).
The search results have revealed a multitude of articles published by Albania-based media outlets that have reported on the decision.
Analyze:
The headline of a news item reports on a request from the KAS (Commission for Complaints and Sanctions) to the CEC to investigate the counters, while the photograph shows the emblem and official name of the Central Election Commission of Kosovo.
However, hibrid.info has noticed that the use of the Kosovo CEC photo was made in an article reporting on a decision in Albania. This could confuse the reader about the place where the event took place.
Based on its work methodology, hibrid.info evaluates the content as "Clickbait".
Reasoning:
“Clickbait” is considered to be informational content whose title is general and does not disclose the location of the event, context and relevance. Such texts and articles aim to attract the attention of the audience with sensational headlines with misleading consequences, which do not accurately clarify the content of the article. “Clickbait” headlines are mainly made to attract readability in the case of media publications and/or to earn from clicks in the case of commercial publications.