Headline

Template:Short description Template:About The headline is the text indicating the content or nature of the article below it, typically by providing a form of brief summary of its contents.

The large type front page headline did not come into use until the late 19th century when increased competition between newspapers led to the use of attention-getting headlines.

It is sometimes termed a news hed, a deliberate misspelling that dates from production flow during hot type days, to notify the composing room that a written note from an editor concerned a headline and should not be set in type.<ref>NY Times: On Language: HED</ref>

Headlines in English often use a set of grammatical rules known as headlinese, designed to meet stringent space requirements by, for example, leaving out forms of the verb "to be" and choosing short verbs like "eye" over longer synonyms like "consider".

ProductionEdit

File:NYTimes-Page1-11-11-1918.jpg

The New York Times uses an unusually large headline to announce the Armistice with Germany 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 TimesTemplate:'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.<ref name="wilford20090714">Template:Cite news</ref>

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,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> others are for works written with winning in mind.<ref>A NYTimes contest to write a NYPost-style headlineTemplate:Cite news</ref>

TypologyEdit

Research in 1980 classified newspaper headlines into four broad categories: questions, commands, statements, and explanations.Template:Sfn Advertisers and marketers classify advertising headlines slightly differently into questions, commands, benefits, news/information, and provocation.Template:Sfn

ResearchEdit

Template:See also Template:Multiple image 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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="10.1371/journal.pone.0276367">Template:Cite journal</ref>

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".<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

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.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

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.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

CriticismEdit

Sensationalism, inaccuracy and misleading headlinesEdit

"Slam"Edit

The use of "slam" in headlines has attracted criticism on the grounds that the word is overused and contributes to media sensationalism.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> 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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Crash blossomsEdit

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}}

"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]",<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The term was coined in August 2009 on the Testy Copy Editors web forum<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> after the Japan Times published an article entitled "Violinist Linked to JAL Crash Blossoms"<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> (since retitled to "Violinist shirks off her tragic image").<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

HeadlineseEdit

Template:Seealso

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

Headlinese has a long history. This example is the front page of the Los Angeles Herald issue of May 29, 1916.

Headlinese is an abbreviated form of news writing style used in newspaper headlines.<ref>Headlinese Collated definitions via www.wordnik.com</ref> Because space is limited, headlines are written in a compressed telegraphic style, using special syntactic conventions,<ref>Isabel Perez.com: "Newspaper Headlines"</ref> 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".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
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 cancerTemplate:' " covered a study which suggested a link but acknowledged that its findings were not definitive.<ref name="bad-news"/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> 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.<ref name=PullumLL>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> Another technique is to present the claim as a question, hence Betteridge's law of headlines.<ref name="bad-news">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

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

Commonly used short wordsEdit

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:<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Template:Div col

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)<ref>"When the Court was a Cage", Sports Illustrated</ref>
chop (to eliminate)
coffer(s) (a person or entity's financial holdings)
confab (a meeting)Template:CN
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)Template:Div col end

Famous examplesEdit

Some famous headlines in periodicals include:

WALL ST. LAYS AN EGG Template:DashVariety on Black Monday (1929)
STICKS NIX HICK PIX Template:DashVariety writing that rural moviegoers preferred urban films (1935)
DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN Template:DashChicago Tribune reporting the wrong election winner (1948)
FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD Template:DashNew York Daily News reporting the denial of a federal bailout for bankrupt New York City (1975)
MUSH FROM THE WIMP Template:DashThe 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".<ref name="globe-now">Template:Cite news Template:Subscription required</ref>
HEADLESS BODY IN TOPLESS BAR Template:DashNew York Post on a local murder (1983)<ref name="fox20150609">Template:Cite news</ref>
SICK TRANSIT'S GLORIOUS MONDAY Template:DashNew 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 mundi<ref>Daily News (New York), 9/25/1979, p. 1</ref>
GOTCHA Template:DashThe 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 Template:DashThe 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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
GREAT SATAN SITS DOWN WITH THE AXIS OF EVILTemplate:DashThe Times (UK) on US–Iran talks (2007)<ref>

Great Satan sits down with the Axis of Evil Template:Dead link Template:Cbignore</ref>

SUPER CALEY GO BALLISTIC CELTIC ARE ATROCIOUSTemplate:DashSun on Inverness Caledonian Thistle beating Celtic F.C. in the Scottish Cup;<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> 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.<ref name="kinsley19860602">Template:Cite magazine</ref> According to him, no entry surpassed the one that had inspired him to create the contest: "WORTHWHILE CANADIAN INITIATIVE",<ref name="worthwhile">Template:Cite news</ref> over a column by The New York TimesTemplate:' Flora Lewis.<ref name="kinsley20100728">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 2003, New York Magazine published a list of eleven "greatest tabloid headlines".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

On 22 June 1978, The Guardian ran an article with the headline "Foot hits back on Nazi comparison".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> 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".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The belief later gained currency that The Times actually had run the headline.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The headline does not, however, appear in The Times Digital Archive.<ref name="timesarchive">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

ReferencesEdit

Template:Reflist

Works citedEdit

External linksEdit

Template:Sister project

Front Page – The British Library Template:Webarchive Exhibition of famous newspaper headlines