But they do amplify visibility and pluralize access. Therefore, a directional lens offered through a frame becomes more visible, by reaching greater audiences more quickly. Headlines must always be current.
Because they can be revised, they are constantly revised, lest the attention of readers drifts off. And so, we live in a news ecology of the ever-changing, always-updateable news beat; headlines are always already new, to borrow a phrase from media historian Lisa Gitelman. Technology is not neutral; it augments exposure. But it also does not discern between truth and fiction. As a result, headlines become clickbait for a broad variety of news organizations, used to attract eyeballs. In some ways, headlines have always been used as clickbait and the news ecology has always been driven by the economics of attention.
These phenomena are not new; the words we use to describe them with have changed. Hashtags become headlines, and tweets are reported as both the headline and the story. Headlines are algorithmically generated and propagated by bots, leading to news, actual or fake. Importantly, newer platforms afford anyone the opportunity to craft a headline, and subsequently a news story. While this pluralizes the news ecology, it does not necessarily democratize the process. Actors, engaging in independent or coordinated acts of journalism, have a say in what story is told, and how it is introduced to the public arena.
We might understand this process as a form of networked framing and gatekeeping, where a variety of actors work together or on their own, to crowdsource news content to prominence, via the use of conversational, social, and digitally enabled practices that symbiotically connect elite and crowd in framing what is relevant. This means that headlines about civil rights issues gain greater attention blacklivesmatter at the same time that fake stories are elevated to prominence pizzagate.
Citizens, journalists, and politicians can. Headlines are part of the magical allure of news reading. In the early days of newspapers, newsboys yelped them out to attract passersby. There is a cognitive element to how we process the news, and framing addresses how the cognitive process is engaged.
There is emotion involved in how we approach and become entranced by the process of following the news; this is both a social and information seeking process. And it is a process called into being via headlines. The affect of headlines, that is, the mood, the atmosphere, the feelings headlines evoke both draws us in and further moves us emotionally. How do newer platforms reorganize the news experience? They fold into and further extend the effect of the hour news cycle, and thus further cultivate and reproduce a fixation with instantaneity in news reporting.
There are multiple ways in which digital and networked platforms of news storytelling amplify the prevalence of headlines and I have referred to some in the previous section. Here I want to focus on how technology lends texture to our affective reaction to news. One key term in doing so is premediation. Premediation describes the form events take on before they turn into stories. Premediation is thus connected to processes of events in the making, to anticipating what the news is going to be like, to how the headline is going to read.
He points to the news scroller, which became a staple of news storytelling during that time, as an example of this anticipation of the new, conveyed through the anxiety of constantly updating headlines. The form of the news scroller has dictated the stylistic and visual presentation of news online. It is a form that induces anticipation, and with that, anxiety; a state of always expecting the new. Elsewhere , I have described this form of news storytelling as affective news.
It is not a form of news storytelling that invites cool reflection, thoughtful fact-checking, and in general, slow news. Affective news is native to ambient, always-on architectures that utilize a variety of social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Reddit in particular. Headlines must fit the space an editor has left for a story. For instance, if you have a three-column 3-col story, the headline must run across all three columns of type--or at least half way across the last column.
All columns of type must have a headline above see example at left. Normally on larger publications, one editor determines head size, and another editor actually writes the head. The two will communicate using a shorthand of three numbers, such as , a "two thirty-six three. That means a two-column, 36 point pt , three-line head. Head shorthand is always written this way: number of columns, type size, number of lines.
Design principles for attractive headlines mean certain sizes of heads can't be used above certain sizes of stories. How do you know? You consult the publication's headline schedule, " hed sked " for short. Let's say you'd like to do a 3 col, 14 pts. You consult your hed sked to find this is not listed. That means you can't use it--because the publication's designers or senior editors have determined that type this small across three columns is not attractive in your publication it's also hard to write the head.
A headline's type size in height is measured in points, while the width of columns is measured in picas. About points and picas. This arcane way of measuring type goes back to s France, and "hot type" days when letters were cast from a lead-tin alloy we moved to offset in the s. A pica p contains 12 pts. Six picas equals one inch about. So how many points in an inch? Of course it's Type sizes are standardized. Anything smaller than about 12 pt is considered "body text," and not used for heads.
Bigger than that is "display type" for heads. Standard display sizes: 14, 18, 24, 30, 36, 48, 60, 72, 84, etc. So how big is, say, a pt head? I'll let you figure out that one. Type about 5 pt is sometimes called "agate," used for fine print. Smaller than that you can't read without a magnifying class.
The hed sked also gives you an idea of how much space in width a headline will use. Note that type in a publication is not usually monospaced, that is, each character taking up the same amount of space, typewriter style. Instead type designers set up proportional spacing.
Fatter letters, such as m and w, take up more space. Thinner letters, such as i and l, take up less space. How much more? How much less? The hed sked shows this with a column of "maximum units. A unit is the amount of space the majority of characters needs.
That is, lower case a, b, c, d, e, etc. Generally they are counted as one unit each. Exceptions are the lower-case thin letters f, i, j, l, t, one-half unit, and fat letters m and w, one and one-half units. Capital letters take up one and one-half units, with the exception of the I, one unit, and portly M and W, two units. Spaces and punctuation take up one-half unit, except the colon, 1 unit.
Numbers are one unit. We used to determine head width by consulting the hed sked while counting units thusly:. Would this headline fit a space, according to the hed sked? Would it fit as a ? Luckily for you we don't count heds like this anymore--a computer does it for us. If you have InDesign or PageMaker software almost antique by now, I'll admit you can practice with this by downloading an online count guide below. InDesign online count guide or build your own in InDesign, directions below :.
If you'd like a step-by-step demonstration using InDesign, take a look at these tutorials Flash files :. How to build an online count guide using InDesign:. Choose New and Document from the File pulldown.
In the dialogue box, toggle off Facing Pages. Change the orientation to the second landscape icon. Companies typically use this type of headline when creating an advertisement. Most command headlines start with a strong action verb. This headline tells an audience why certain situations occur.
This type of headline typically results in a list article format, which readers often prefer over other types of articles since it's easier to skim. Emotional headlines typically target either a positive or negative feeling to encourage an audience to read an article.
To do this, writers use powerful words such as affordable or stressed. A wordplay headline uses a creative formation of words and phrasing, typically in the form of a pun or irony. Companies often use these headlines when trying to make a less important topic amusing.
Brand name headlines use recognizable organizations to compare a company's business or products to its competitors. This can be helpful for new businesses trying to participate in a similar market as a more established company. Best headlines rank certain items above others. These can attract readers who look for top-rated content, such as the best restaurants to try or the best computer to buy, for example. A two-part headline uses a punctuation mark, such as a colon, em dash or parentheses to combine two ideas.
Usually, both parts of these headlines can stand alone, but together, they increase the chances of capturing a reader's attention. Relational headlines connect a reader to the subject of an article by using second-person language. Relating the topic to the reader helps them become interested in reading and discovering how this article can help them.
Location-specific headlines attract readers by making them feel included in knowledge only a select group of people would know. These headlines focus on something that people in a particular area share in common.
A challenging belief headline convinces individuals to read by using a reverse psychology technique. Usually, these headlines begin with, "You won't believe Confrontational headlines are persuasive, as they attract people who either agree with the headline or have opposing opinions. Posing a controversial stance can entice individuals to read and see whether the article changed or enforced their existing opinions. A testimonial headline begins with a quote from a company's consumer.
This gives viewers an objective, opinionated statement from someone who has used a company's products. Related: What Are Testimonials? This headline supports a statement by confirming its thesis with scientific evidence and proof. Writers use these headlines for articles that include research on a particular idea.
Background headlines start with contextual information.
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