US EditionOxford Names 'Rage Bait' as Word of the Year: Here's What It Means
Oxford University Press named 'rage bait' word of the year as online content designed to provoke anger fuels political and media conflicts, including White House media bias labeling.
- On Dec. 1, Oxford University Press announced `rage bait` as its Word of the Year, beating out `aura farming` and `biohack`.
- Defined broadly, `rage bait` refers to online content deliberately designed to elicit anger to increase engagement, with users online for more than 4 minutes in the past year likely to have encountered it and algorithms amplifying reactive content.
- The White House launched a webpage described as a `media bias` portal featuring a `media offender of the week` and an `Offender Hall of Shame`, but critics say it links to right-wing websites rather than original reporting while the site says it offers `unfiltered truth`.
- As Congress questioned Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth about Washington Post reports that he ordered to `kill everybody` aboard a boat, Hegseth responded with a militarized Franklin the Turtle meme, which commentators called trolling.
- Observers said Oxford University Press's choice is timely and reflects a pattern where Donald Trump and MAGA loyalists bully journalists with personal slurs like `piggy` and `ugly`.
12 Articles
12 Articles
Oxford Dictionary Just Announced Their 2025 Word Of The Year—And Yep, That Tracks
It's that time of year when all of the "2025 wrap ups" start to come out—some carefully considered and others a slapdash attempt at penning a list of things for people to buy—but a few "best of" lists are highly anticipated each year.For those interested in words and/or pop culture, one of the big moments is when Oxford University Press releases their Word of the Year.This year? Rage bait.Yes, a single expression to encapsulate both the rise of …
Oxford Chooses "Rage Bait" as Word of the Year, Immediately Causes Rage
Oxford has spoken, and the Word of the Year is officially “rage bait,” which feels extremely on-brand for a planet that now communicates mostly through yelling in comment sections. “Rage bait” is defined as online content deliberately crafted to make you so mad you slam your keyboard like a disgruntled Wookiee. You’ve seen it. You’ve felt it. You’ve probably fallen for it. It’s the digital equivalent of someone whispering, “Firefly actually suck…
The English "Word of the Year" is "Rage Bait: a term that describes targeted provocations on the Internet. A good choice, because this problem has enormous social explosive power.
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Bias Distribution
- 100% of the sources lean Left
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