Lately I’ve noticed news headlines written in a particular style - instead of something like:
“West Palm Beach boy, 12, dies of flu”
you get:
“They thought it was a cold. Now he’s the third child to die of the flu in Florida.” (link)
Has anyone else noticed this? Is there a name or term for such headlines?
I don’t know if there’s a term for it, but the reason is probably because, with most news nowadays being online, there isn’t as much need to scrimp for space.
It’s almost like click bait, but you’ll click on it because it’s not click bait since you don’t have to click on it to see what happens. They might actually get (more) clicks from people that are interested in reading it knowing (assuming) it’s not click bait garbage.
ETA, if it makes a difference, the title bar in my browser says “12 year old Florida boy dies from the flu”.
You Won’t Believe What This 12-Year-Old Boy Died From!
Top 10 things 12 year old boys die from. #7 will BLOW YOUR MIND!
It strikes me as “magazine-style” writing rather than “newspaper.” It seems like something that would be not exactly the title of a magazine story, but appear in large letters on the first page of the story inside the magazine. There’s probably a word for it. Subtitle? Subhead? I can imagine it as text superimposed on a full-page photo on the left side, while the actual story and perhaps a smaller photo appears on the right side.
I dunno, but the Washington Post seems to do this all the time. Currently in my Google news feed:
*Ford Says It’s a New Era. Wall Street Isn’t Buying It. - New York Times
AT&T wants Congress to draft a net neutrality law. Here’s why that’s a big deal. - Washington Post
Disco nights? Rocket Lab launches glinting sphere into orbit - Washington Post
One year ago, Paul Ryan made a heartfelt promise to a ‘dreamer.’ Now she’s back. - Washington Post
*
Can’t say that I’m a fan of the style. Clickbaity.
Tabloid?
Exactly the kinds of headlines I’m asking about - I’m seeing this (strange, to me) 2-sentence format more and more lately - I’m not a fan either.
Yes, it seems to be online clickbait.
They aren’t the same in an actual paper copy of the Washington Post.
I’ve heard the word “teaser” used for this, many years ago and long before the internet. Gossip magazines still do it.
Yeah, this is a little different from the standard clickbait, like Darren Garrison and snfaulkner’s examples–there’s no huge abundance of capital letters, exclamation points, or the usual teaser intros (“You won’t believe”, “Top N things”, etc.). They’re usually of the form “Here’s a thing that happened. Here’s why you should care.” or “This thing happened. Then this other thing happened as a result.” or “So-and-so said X. Then what’s-his-face said Y.” It’s bad, but not quite at the level of BuzzFeed or the like.
I was thinking “tabloid” too, since it’s characteristic of tabloid journalism that it tends to emphasise up the human interest aspect of stories, and also to sensationalise them slightly.
This led me to have a look at today’s papers here
Print edition:
Presidents Club to close after sexual harassment revelations - Financial Times (this is after an FT journalist revealed that the men at a charity event were groping the waitresses)
SEXISTS AND THE CITY - Metro (a free London tabloid)
Online Edition:
Men Only: Inside the charity fundraiser where hostesses are put on show - FT
Grumpy cat wins £500,000 payout over coffee company using her image - Metro (the groping story doesn’t seem to feature anywhere)
Over here we just call it “Tabloid” or “Red Top” journalism.
Yellow journalism – sensationalism and exaggeration designed to cause readers (or cable news viewers) to be afraid or angry.
I was expecting, “Twelve-year-old boy dies from this one weird trick!”.
Not trying to hijack this discussion, but there is another headline style that really bugs me because it looks “wrong” to me, and that is the style of putting the attribution at the far end of the headline. Something like, “Twelve-year-old boy dies from this one weird trick: Coroner”. To me, it makes it look like the Coroner is the “one weird trick”. I think it would read better if it said, “Coroner: Twelve-year-old boy dies from blah blah”.
Deck?
Clickbait.
Be it your local news or major outlets, there is a very tiny amount or money to be made if they get you to open the article. Very tiny becomes very big money if you get enough clicks. It is what all news is based upon now, clicks. If you read something like Google News you will see the very same story told the very same way, often from the very same sources, but the lead-in title will keep changing as if it were a different story, or adding more detail. Nope, just a different title to generate more clicks, from people who have already read the story.
Deck is what it was called in the old days, when you’d have three or so levels of headline, all on the same story:
TITANIC SINKS
Rams Iceberg in North Atlantic
1,500 reported lost on ‘unsinkable’ vessel
Each level was called a deck.
I’m not close enough to the industry to know if editors have come up with a name for this new style, but Tuesday’s New York Times contained an excellent example, one that would have made all my journalism teachers sigh that I really needed to get with the program:
Kentucky School
Shooting Is 11th of
Year. It’s Jan. 23.