Headline#Criticism

File:NYTimes-Page1-11-11-1918.jpg at the end of World War I.]]

A headline's purpose is to quickly and briefly draw attention to the story. It is generally written by a copy editor, but may also be written by the writer, the page layout designer, or other editors. The most important story on the front page above the fold may have a larger headline if the story is unusually important. The New York Times{{'s}} 21 July 1969 front page stated, for example, that "MEN WALK ON MOON", with the four words in gigantic size spread from the left to right edges of the page.{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/14/science/space/14mission.html?pagewanted=all | title=On Hand for Space History, as Superpowers Spar | work=The New York Times | date=14 July 2009 | access-date=24 April 2011 | author=Wilford, John Noble}}

In the United States, headline contests are sponsored by the American Copy Editors Society, the National Federation of Press Women, and many state press associations; some contests consider created content already published,{{cite web

|url=https://aceseditors.org/awards/headline-contest

|title=Headline Contest}} others are for works written with winning in mind.A NYTimes contest to write a NYPost-style headline{{cite news |newspaper=The New York Times

|url=https://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/11/readers-offer-tabloid-titles-for-bloomberg-term

|title=After Winning N.Y. Times Contest

|date=November 11, 2011}}

Research in 1980 classified newspaper headlines into four broad categories: questions, commands, statements, and explanations.{{sfn|Davis|Brewer|1997|p=56}} Advertisers and marketers classify advertising headlines slightly differently into questions, commands, benefits, news/information, and provocation.{{sfn|Arens|1996|p=285}}

{{See also|Media studies|Misinformation}}

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| image1 = Emotionality in news articles headlines since 2000.png

| caption1 = Emotionality in news articles headlines since 2000

| image2 = Average yearly sentiment of headlines across 47 popular news media outlets.png

| caption2 = Average yearly sentiment of headlines across 47 popular news media outlets

}}

A study indicates there has been a substantial increase of sentiment negativity and decrease of emotional neutrality in headlines across written popular U.S.-based news media since 2000.{{cite web |last1=Brooks |first1=David |title=Opinion {{!}} The Rising Tide of Global Sadness |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/27/opinion/global-sadness-rising.html |website=The New York Times |access-date=21 November 2022 |date=27 October 2022}}{{cite journal |last1=Rozado |first1=David |last2=Hughes |first2=Ruth |last3=Halberstadt |first3=Jamin |title=Longitudinal analysis of sentiment and emotion in news media headlines using automated labelling with Transformer language models |journal=PLOS ONE |date=18 October 2022 |volume=17 |issue=10 |pages=e0276367 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0276367 |pmid=36256658 |pmc=9578611 |bibcode=2022PLoSO..1776367R |language=en |issn=1932-6203|doi-access=free}}

Another study concluded that those who have gained the most experience with reading newspapers "spend most of their reading time scanning the headlines—rather than reading [all or most of] the stories".{{cite journal |last1=Dor |first1=Daniel |title=On newspaper headlines as relevance optimizers |journal=Journal of Pragmatics |date=May 2003 |volume=35 |issue=5 |pages=695–721 |doi=10.1016/S0378-2166(02)00134-0|s2cid=8394655 }}

Headlines can bias readers toward a specific interpretation and readers struggle to update their memory in order to correct initial misconceptions in the cases of misleading or inappropriate headlines.{{cite journal |last1=Ecker |first1=Ullrich K. H. |last2=Lewandowsky |first2=Stephan |last3=Chang |first3=Ee Pin |last4=Pillai |first4=Rekha |title=The effects of subtle misinformation in news headlines. |journal=Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied |date=December 2014 |volume=20 |issue=4 |pages=323–335 |doi=10.1037/xap0000028 |pmid=25347407 |language=en}}

One approach investigated as a potential countermeasure to online misinformation is "attaching warnings to headlines of news stories that have been disputed by third-party fact-checkers", albeit its potential problems include e.g. that false headlines that fail to get tagged are considered validated by readers.{{cite journal |last1=Pennycook |first1=Gordon |last2=Bear |first2=Adam |last3=Collins |first3=Evan T. |last4=Rand |first4=David G. |title=The Implied Truth Effect: Attaching Warnings to a Subset of Fake News Headlines Increases Perceived Accuracy of Headlines Without Warnings |journal=Management Science |date=November 2020 |volume=66 |issue=11 |pages=4944–4957 |doi=10.1287/mnsc.2019.3478|doi-access=free }}

{{See also|#Research|Clickbait}}

{{Expand section|date=December 2022}}

The use of "slam" in headlines has attracted criticism on the grounds that the word is overused and contributes to media sensationalism.{{cite journal|author=Ann-Derrick Gaillot|title=The Outline "slams" media for overusing the word|url=https://theoutline.com/post/5405/slam-media-trend-overuse|journal=The Outline|date=2018-07-28|access-date=2020-02-24}}{{cite news|last=Kehe|first=Jason|title=Colloquialism slams language|url=http://dailytrojan.com/2009/09/09/colloquialism-slams-language/|work=Daily Trojan|date=9 September 2009}} The violent imagery of words like "slam", "blast", "rip", and "bash" has drawn comparison to professional wrestling, where the primary aim is to titillate audiences with a conflict-laden and largely predetermined narrative, rather than provide authentic coverage of spontaneous events.{{cite web|last=Russell|first=Michael|title=Biden 'Rips' Trump, Yankees 'Bash' Twins: Is Anyone Going to 'Slam' the Press?|website=PolitiChicks|url=https://politichicks.com/2019/10/biden-rips-trump-yankees-bash-twins-is-anyone-going-to-slam-the-press/|date=8 October 2019}}

{{main|Syntactic ambiguity#In headlines}}

"Crash blossoms" is a term used to describe headlines that have unintended ambiguous meanings, such as The Times headline "Hospitals named after sandwiches kill five". The word 'named' is typically used in headlines to mean "blamed/held accountable/named [in a lawsuit]",{{cite web |last1=Pérez |first1=Isabel |title=Newspaper Headlines |url=http://www.isabelperez.com/module4_tesis/headlines.htm |website=English as a Second or Foreign Language |access-date=31 March 2020}} but in this example it seems to say that the hospitals' names were related to sandwiches. The headline was subsequently changed in the electronic version of the article.{{cite news |last1=Brown |first1=David |title=Hospital trusts named after sandwiches kill five |url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/hospital-trusts-named-after-sandwiches-kill-five-sfsklntwb |access-date=31 March 2020 |work=The Times |date=18 June 2019}} The term was coined in August 2009 on the Testy Copy Editors web forum{{cite news |last1=Zimmer |first1=Ben |title=Crash Blossoms |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/31/magazine/31FOB-onlanguage-t.html |access-date=31 March 2020 |work=New York Times Magazine |date=Jan 31, 2010}} after the Japan Times published an article entitled "Violinist Linked to JAL Crash Blossoms"{{cite web |last1=subtle_body |last2=danbloom |last3=Nessie3 |title=What's a crash blossom? |url=http://www.testycopyeditors.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=11134 |website=Testy Copy Editors |access-date=31 March 2020}} (since retitled to "Violinist shirks off her tragic image").{{cite news |last1=Masangkay |first1=May |title=Violinist shirks off her tragic image |url=https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2009/08/18/national/violinist-shirks-off-her-tragic-image/#.XoOXCHIpCUk |access-date=31 March 2020 |work=The Japan Times |date=18 August 2009}}

{{seealso|Journalese}}

File:Los Angeles Herald, Number 180, 29 May 1916 front page.jpg issue of May 29, 1916.]]

Headlinese is an abbreviated form of news writing style used in newspaper headlines.[http://www.wordnik.com/words/headlinese Headlinese] Collated definitions via www.wordnik.com Because space is limited, headlines are written in a compressed telegraphic style, using special syntactic conventions,[http://www.isabelperez.com/module4_tesis/headlines.htm Isabel Perez.com: "Newspaper Headlines"] including:

• Forms of the verb "to be" and articles (a, an, the) are usually omitted.
• Most verbs are in the simple present tense, e.g. "Governor signs bill", while the future is expressed by an infinitive, with to followed by a verb, as in "Governor to sign bill"
• The conjunction "and" is often replaced by a comma, as in "Bush, Blair laugh off microphone mishap".{{cite news |url= http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/07/18/bush.tape.reaction/index.html |title=Bush, Blair laugh off microphone mishap |publisher=CNN |date=July 21, 2006 |access-date=July 17, 2007 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070816181203/http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/07/18/bush.tape.reaction/index.html |archive-date = August 16, 2007}}
• Individuals are usually specified by surname only, with no honorifics.
• Organizations and institutions are often indicated by metonymy: "Wall Street" for the US financial sector, "Whitehall" for the UK government administration, "Madrid" for the government of Spain, "Davos" for World Economic Forum, and so on.
• Many abbreviations, including contractions and acronyms, are used: in the UK, some examples are Lib Dems (for the Liberal Democrats), Tories (for the Conservative Party); in the US, Dems (for "Democrats") and GOP (for the Republican Party, from the nickname "Grand Old Party"). The period (full point) is usually omitted from these abbreviations, though U.S. may retain them, especially in all-caps headlines to avoid confusion with the word us.
• Lack of a terminating full stop (period) even if the headline forms a complete sentence.
• Use of single quotation marks to indicate a claim or allegation that cannot be presented as a fact. For example, an article titled "Ultra-processed foods 'linked to cancer{{' "}} covered a study which suggested a link but acknowledged that its findings were not definitive.{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/health-43064290|title=Ultra-processed foods 'linked to cancer'| work=BBC News |date=2018-02-15|accessdate=2021-02-26}} Linguist Geoffrey K. Pullum characterizes this practice as deceptive, noting that the single-quoted expressions in newspaper headlines are often not actual quotations, and sometimes convey a claim that is not supported by the text of the article.{{cite web|last=Pullum|first=Geoffrey|title=Mendacity quotes|url=https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=1017|work=Language Log|date=2009-01-14|accessdate=2021-02-26}} Another technique is to present the claim as a question, hence Betteridge's law of headlines.{{cite book |last=Pack |first=Mark |author-link=Mark Pack |date=2020 |title=Bad News: What the Headlines Don't Tell Us|publisher=Biteback|page=100-102}}{{cite web|url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-secrets-you-learn-working-at-celebrity-gossip-magazines/|title=The Secrets You Learn Working at Celebrity Gossip Magazines|date=2018-09-12|access-date=2021-02-26}}

Some periodicals have their own distinctive headline styles, such as Variety and its entertainment-jargon headlines, most famously "Sticks Nix Hick Pix".

To save space and attract attention, headlines often use extremely short words, many of which are not otherwise in common use, in unusual or idiosyncratic ways:{{cite web |website=Social Media Today

|url=https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/which-types-of-headlines-drive-the-most-content-engagement-post-click-new/549681

|title=Which Types of Headlines Drive the Most Content Engagement Post-Click?

|author=Chad Pollitt |date=March 5, 2019}}{{cite web

|url=https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2014/07/17/headline-writing

|title=19 Headline Writing Tips for More Clickable Blog Posts

|date=August 27, 2019}}{{cite web

|url=https://buffer.com/resources/how-to-write-a-headline/

|title=There's No Perfect Headline: Why We Need to Write Multiple Headlines for Every Article

|author=Ash Read |date=August 24, 2016}}

{{div col|colwidth=22em}}

• ace (a professional, especially a member of an elite sports team, e.g. "England ace")
• axe (to eliminate)
• bid (to attempt)
• blast (to heavily criticize)
• cagers (basketball team – "cage" is an old term for indoor court)[https://www.si.com/vault/1991/11/11/125381/when-the-court-was-a-cage-in-the-early-days-of-pro-basketball-the-players-were-segregated-from-the-fans "When the Court was a Cage"], Sports Illustrated
• chop (to eliminate)
• coffer(s) (a person or entity's financial holdings)
• confab (a meeting){{CN|date=June 2023}}
• eye (to consider)
• finger (to accuse, blame)
• fold (to shut down)
• gambit (an attempt)
• hail (to praise, welcome)
• hike (to increase, raise)
• ink (to sign a contract)
• jibe (an insult)
• laud (to praise)
• lull (a pause)
• mar (to damage, harm)
• mull (to contemplate)
• nab (to acquire, arrest)
• nix (to reject)
• parley (to discuss)
• pen (to write)
• probe (to investigate)
• quiz (to question, interrogate)
• rap (to criticize)
• romp (an easy victory or a sexual encounter)
• row (an argument or disagreement)
• rue (to lament)
• see (to forecast)
• slay (to murder)
• slam (to heavily criticize)
• slump (to decrease)
• snub (to reject)
• solon (to judge)
• spat (an argument or disagreement)
• spark (to cause, instigate)
• star (a celebrity, often modified by another noun, e.g. "soap star")
• tap (to select, choose)
• tot (a child)
• tout (to put forward)
• woe (disappointment or misfortune){{div col end}}

Some famous headlines in periodicals include:

• WALL ST. LAYS AN EGG{{dash}}Variety on Black Monday (1929)
• STICKS NIX HICK PIX{{dash}}Variety writing that rural moviegoers preferred urban films (1935)
• DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN{{dash}}Chicago Tribune reporting the wrong election winner (1948)
• FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD{{dash}}New York Daily News reporting the denial of a federal bailout for bankrupt New York City (1975)
• MUSH FROM THE WIMP{{dash}}The Boston Globe in-house joke headline for an editorial, which was not changed before 161,000 copies had been printed. Theo Lippman Jr. of the Baltimore Sun declared "Mush from the Wimp" the second most famous newspaper headline of the 20th century, behind "Wall St. Lays an Egg" and ahead of "Ford to City: Drop Dead".{{cite news | url = https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/boston/access/666646561.html?FMT=ABS&date=Nov%206,%201982 | title = Now It Can Be Told . . . The Story Behind Campaign '82's Favorite Insult | first = Kirk | last = Scharfenberg | page = 1 | date = 1982-11-06 | work = The Boston Globe | location = Boston, Massachusetts | access-date = 2011-01-20 | archive-date = 2011-05-23 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110523054034/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/boston/access/666646561.html?FMT=ABS&date=Nov%206,%201982 | url-status = dead }}{{Subscription required}}
• HEADLESS BODY IN TOPLESS BAR{{dash}}New York Post on a local murder (1983){{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/10/business/media/vincent-musetto-74-author-of-headless-headline-of-ageless-fame.html |title=Vincent Musetto, 74, Dies; Wrote 'Headless' Headline of Ageless Fame |last=Fox |first=Margalit |date=2016-06-09 |newspaper=The New York Times}}
• SICK TRANSIT'S GLORIOUS MONDAY{{dash}}New York Daily News front-page caption on a photo (1979) reporting an agreement to avoid fare increases on city transit services, making a multi-word pun on the Latin phrase Sic transit gloria mundiDaily News (New York), 9/25/1979, p. 1
• GOTCHA{{dash}}The UK Sun on the torpedoing of the Argentine ship Belgrano and sinking of a gunboat during the Falklands War (1982)
• FREDDIE STARR ATE MY HAMSTER{{dash}}The UK Sun (1986), claiming that the comedian had eaten a fan's pet hamster in a sandwich. The story was later proven false, but is seen as one of the classic tabloid newspaper headlines.{{cite news| url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/4973880.stm#hamster | publisher=BBC News | title=Telegraph wins newspaper vote | date=25 May 2006}}
• GREAT SATAN SITS DOWN WITH THE AXIS OF EVIL{{dash}}The Times (UK) on US–Iran talks (2007)

[http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article1851791.ece Great Satan sits down with the Axis of Evil]{{dead link|date=September 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}

• SUPER CALEY GO BALLISTIC CELTIC ARE ATROCIOUS{{dash}}Sun on Inverness Caledonian Thistle beating Celtic F.C. in the Scottish Cup;{{Cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/scot_div_1/2875957.stm|title=Super Caley dream realistic?|publisher=BBC | date=22 March 2003}} a pun on "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious"
• WE ARE POPE (in German: Wir sind Papst); Bild after a German was voted to become Pope Benedict XVI in 2005.

The New Republic editor Michael Kinsley began a contest to find the most boring newspaper headline.{{cite magazine | url=http://www.tnr.com/article/83792/dont-stop-the-presses | author=Kinsley, Michael | title=Don't Stop The Press | magazine=The New Republic | date=1986-06-02 | access-date=April 26, 2011}} According to him, no entry surpassed the one that had inspired him to create the contest: "WORTHWHILE CANADIAN INITIATIVE",{{cite news | last = Lewis | first = Flora | title = Worthwhile Canadian Initiative | newspaper = The New York Times | date = 4 October 1986 | url = https://www.nytimes.com/1986/04/10/opinion/foreign-affairs-worthwhile-canadian-initiative.html | access-date = 9 March 2013}} over a column by The New York Times{{'}} Flora Lewis.{{cite web | url=http://www.theatlanticwire.com/entertainment/2010/07/boring-article-contest/17657/ | title=Boring Article Contest | work=The Atlantic | date=28 July 2010 | access-date=26 April 2011 | author=Kinsley, Michael}} In 2003, New York Magazine published a list of eleven "greatest tabloid headlines".{{cite web|url=https://nymag.com/nymetro/news/anniversary/35th/n_8568/|title=Greatest Tabloid Headlines|publisher=Nymag.com|date=March 31, 2003|access-date=February 11, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090122082148/http://nymag.com/nymetro/news/anniversary/35th/n_8568/|archive-date=January 22, 2009|url-status=live}}

On 22 June 1978, The Guardian ran an article with the headline "Foot hits back on Nazi comparison".{{cite news |title=Foot hits back on Nazi comparison |work=The Guardian |date=22 June 1978}} Reader David C. Allan of Edinburgh responded with a letter to the editor, which the paper ran on 27 June. Decrying the headline's apparent pun, Allan suggested that, if Foot were in future to be appointed Secretary of State for Defence, The Guardian might cover it under the headline "Foot Heads Arms Body".{{cite news |title=Footnote [letter to the editor] |first=David C. |last=Allan |journal=The Guardian |date=1978-06-27 |page=10 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/39001580/foot_heads_arms_body/}} The belief later gained currency that The Times actually had run the headline.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2010/mar/05/footnotes-life-michael-foot|title=Footnotes to a life well lived|last=Hoggart|first=Simon|author-link=Simon Hoggart|date=5 March 2010|work=The Guardian|location=London|access-date=2 October 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131005004144/http://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2010/mar/05/footnotes-life-michael-foot|archive-date=5 October 2013|url-status=live}} The headline does not, however, appear in The Times Digital Archive.{{cite web|url=http://gale.cengage.co.uk/times.aspx/ |title=The Times Digital Archive |publisher=Cengage Learning |date=2011 |access-date=28 May 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160430065942/http://gale.cengage.co.uk/times.aspx/ |archive-date=30 April 2016 }}

• A-1 Headline, a 2004 Hong Kong film
• {{annotated link|Betteridge's law of headlines}}
• Bus plunge, a type of news story, and accompanying headline
• Copy editing
• Corporate jargon
• Crosswordese, words common in crosswords that are otherwise rarely used
• {{annotated link|Dateline}}
• Ellipsis (linguistics), omission of words
• Headlines (from The Tonight Show with Jay Leno)
• Lead paragraph
• {{annotated link|Nut paragraph}}
• Syntactic ambiguity, leads to multiple humorous possible alternative interpretations of written headline
• {{annotated link|Title (publishing)}}

{{reflist}}

• {{cite book |last1=Arens |first1=William F. |title=Contemporary Advertising |date=1996 |publisher=Irwin |isbn=978-0-256-18257-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R4cXAQAAMAAJ |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Davis |first1=Boyd H. |last2=Brewer |first2=Jeutonne |title=Electronic Discourse: Linguistic Individuals in Virtual Space |date=1 January 1997 |publisher=SUNY Press |isbn=978-0-7914-3475-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Kz11jvHsed4C |language=en}}

news headlines[https://todaynewsheadlines.com/ Headlines]

• Harold Evans (1974). News Headlines (Editing and Design : Book Three) Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd. {{ISBN|978-0-434-90552-2}}
• Fritz Spiegl (1966). What The Papers Didn't Mean to Say. Scouse Press, Liverpool {{ISBN|0901367028}}
• Mårdh, Ingrid (1980); Headlinese: On the Grammar of English Front Page headlines; "Lund studies in English" series; Lund, Sweden: Liberläromedel/Gleerup; {{ISBN|91-40-04753-9}}
• Biber, D. (2007); "Compressed noun phrase structures in newspaper discourse: The competing demands of popularization vs. economy"; in W. Teubert and R. Krishnamurthy (eds.); Corpus linguistics: Critical concepts in linguistics; vol. V, pp. 130–141; London: Routledge

{{wiktionary|headline}}

• [http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/features/frontpage/homepage.html Front Page – The British Library] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170722001100/http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/features/frontpage/homepage.html |date=2017-07-22 }} Exhibition of famous newspaper headlines

Category:Journalism terminology