6 Minute English / Rage bait: How online anger makes money

Note: This is not a word-for-word transcript.

Hello, this is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English, I'm Phil.

And I'm Beth.

If you use the internet, and nearly everyone does, you ve probably read headlines like this:

You won t believe what plastic surgery this celebrity has had done!

Known as clickbait, headlines like these are used to grab your attention and make you read more.

But now, a new trend called rage bait is spreading across social media. Rage bait is online content designed to make you angry or outraged.

In this programme, we ll explore the trend of rage-baiting, and, as usual, we ll learn some useful new vocabulary, all of which you can find on our website, bbclearningenglish.com.

Great, but first it s time for my question, Beth, which is about the two terms we ve been using: 'clickbait' and 'rage bait'. Both contain the word, 'bait', but what is its actual meaning? Is bait:

a) a strong feeling of anger?b) food put on a hook to catch fish or animals?c) a piece of computer software?