As long as there has been news delivered in print form, which in America dates back to the 18th Century, there have been headlines to inform the reader what the story is about. In the span of a few words, a good headline conveys the most essential aspect of a story, often in a way that piques the curiosity of the reader to continue reading.
By its limitations, a headline cannot and was never intended to compress the full story into those few words.
But for some people, their understanding of the story begins and ends with the headline, often inflaming passions.
Granted, some headlines are intended to stir passions. When print journalism was the primary means that readers got their news, competition often tempted newspapers to produce sensational headlines that promised much and delivered far less. It was a marketing ploy still in use today across all platforms. It is referred to as click-bait in the world of online news.
Most headlines, though, are intended to be a straight-forward introduction to the story that follows.
Behind the headline, most news stories are written in the inverted pyramid format – the most important elements of the story at the top, followed by other details, from most important to least important.
For some readers, the story begins and ends with just the headline, Others consume only a few sentences of the story.
Those who fall into these categories of readers often come to a distorted or false conclusion about what the news actually is.
We saw a good example last week with a story on the city of Columbus’ plans for its Christmas tree.
The headline read, “Artificial tree to replace magnolia lighting at Christmas.”
In true inverted pyramid form, the story noted at the beginning that the “Columbus City Council voted Tuesday to approve the purchase of a $15,000 artificial Christmas tree to replace the lighting of the magnolia tree near the pedestrian bridge downtown.”
The online version of the story elicited a torrent of comments from angry readers who were deeply offended that the city would spend taxpayer funds on the fee.
Had those readers continued to read the news story they would have learned that the cost of the tree was covered through a private donor at no cost to the city.
Even when Mayor Keith Gaskin pointed out that the funds were being donated by a local insurance company (confirmed by a subsequent comment from a partner in the company), the angry responses kept coming. Folks questioned why the $15,000 couldn’t be spent to fill in potholes or feed the poor.
Some folks just weren’t going to be satisfied with the full story.
As Mark Twain noted long ago, a lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes.
Some folks are itching for a fight.
But in the digital world of news, where more steps may be required for the reader to get from the headline to the story, these sorts of misunderstandings are often benign. That’s especially true on sites where the headline is available to all, but the story itself is beyond a paywall.
These kinds of situations should remind us that sometimes the only thing worse than no information is having a little.
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You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 32 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
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