Beyond the headlines
I love headlines. They are among the most intriguing aspects of media analysis. Working with the news on a daily basis provides you with access to some eye-catching and hilarious headlines. I mean, how can you not read a story titled Man wrestles leopard in undies?
Apparently the mayor of Ottawa is also quite interested in headlines. He recently held a presser to announce he may sue the city’s biggest daily paper over allegations that he offered a federal job to another mayoral candidate if that candidtate dropped out of the race.
I found it quite fascinating that it was specifically the headline – E-mails from Larry O’Brien offer mayoral candidate help to get federal post – that really set things off. Headlines are by nature designed to attract attention, so I guess job well done. But in this case, when, in my opinion, the facts in the story don’t back up the headline, it raises a common question about the motivation of the media: Is it ok to stretch the truth to sell more papers? I’ll definitely be watching this story as it progresses.
From a media analysis perspective, headlines can be tough to handle when evaluating the tone or sentiment of the story. There are many cases where the headline does not match up at all with the tone or sentiment of the story itself. I’m working on a future post that will cover off some interesting examples of how contrary the headlines can be to the supporting story, and examples of how the same wire story can have outrageously different headlines from one publication to the next. Stay tuned!
