Go to Can You Believe This?
- Add a comment
- Go to Newspaper Headlines: Does Clever Supercede Accurate?
Tgirl
I really like number 2...lol
Yes distorted headlines can sometimes leave me wanting to pull my hair out simply because I read something I thought was there, but wasn't...It can be very frustrating!
posted by
Offy
on September 29, 2006 at 6:45 PM
| link to this | reply
Mike
You're right about the exciting part. I'd still like to really learn to play, however.
I thought the clever and accurate was a given. Now some subjects just can't, and shouldn't, be clever. Accurate should always be the main thing, I think.
posted by
terpgirl30
on September 29, 2006 at 5:47 PM
| link to this | reply
And yes clever is what is needed for a headline
The best are both clever and accurate though.
posted by
mikea18
on September 29, 2006 at 5:37 PM
| link to this | reply
But isn't locking himself in a bathroom..
about as exciting as a chess player can get? The whole thing sounds more like it should be from Monty Python.
posted by
mikea18
on September 29, 2006 at 5:35 PM
| link to this | reply
Afzal
I think they are smart enought to figure it out generally. The whole premise of my "Can You Believe This" blog is that "real" stuff people do is crazier than fiction I could make up. To that end, I go scour all sorts of sources for that crazy story. For these articles, the headline isn't misleading. The story generally is just about as crazy as the headline.
The point is, I'll see those headlines now, and often assume they are just another one of those "oddball" stories I put in here.
In this case, it was a totally boring sort of thing that the headline writer just enhanced to pull in a reader. And it worked.
There are marketing people on this site, so maybe they can add their opinions. The key to a marketing campaign is that it can be inane or even irritating to work. There are many advertisements that people remember purely because they're annoying. It doesn't stop people from buying the product. It only makes them remember the product's name which is all that counts for the marketer who wants to sell the product. Bad or good can be good as long as it's remembered.
The point is, it comes down to that purist view of what journalist SHOULD be. There should be lines that aren't crossed. Journalism should not reflect marketing tools. They're very different.
posted by
terpgirl30
on September 29, 2006 at 5:12 PM
| link to this | reply
Readers are smart enough to distinguish between accurate and clever
writing . Headlines do not change the news .
posted by
afzal50
on September 29, 2006 at 5:06 PM
| link to this | reply