The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) on Friday warned media to avoid using over-exaggerated and irrelevant headlines and photographs in their reports to attract readers as it is harming public order.
The CAC said in an article on its website on Friday that there are many media outlets that neglect the importance of making headlines relevant to the articles' content but instead use dramatic words that take advantage of netizens' curiosity to increase website traffic.
In one of the examples cited by the CAC, an article named "Oh my god! This must be exposed!" along with a picture of a nude woman, which turned out to be an article about a chemical food contamination scandal.
The CAC said media methods to win page views includes taking advantage of people's concern toward children, people's curiosity about negative news about celebrities, national sentiment and scary and vulgar pictures.
The management of the social media platforms should be further optimized to ensure better supervision over Weibo and Wechat users, it said.
The CAC added that media should avoid using over-exaggerated and irrelevant headlines and photographs in their reports as it is disrupting public order.
