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> link-bait headlines

Otherwise known as headlines.

Link-bait is just a new word, the phenomenon must date back to the invention of the printing press.

Arguably, printed materials gave you more context along with the title, without opening up the full article.

Seeing the link is akin to passing the newsstand from a medium distance. Clicking the link is akin to picking up the newspaper and seeing the small print. Skipping the ad is akin to opening the newspaper to the continuation of the story inside.

Pamphleteering: http://www.thepamphleteers.com/overview.htm

But I think the most relevant artifacts are what were referred to as "broadsides" Explosive or dramatic one pagers were printed (often as advertisements) and pasted on sides of buildings usually at night under the safety of darkness.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_literature

It still makes me kind of wistful considering how their headlines today are usually completely anodyne to the point of euphemism, which it sound like the author was in some Valium-induced fugue state.

I had to look up a lot of the words you used in this sentence.