{"id":24737,"date":"2011-06-06T00:59:25","date_gmt":"2011-06-06T04:59:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sierraexpressmedia.com\/?p=24737"},"modified":"2011-06-06T00:59:25","modified_gmt":"2011-06-06T04:59:25","slug":"journalists-meet-writing-headlines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/?p=24737","title":{"rendered":"Journalists Meet: Writing Headlines"},"content":{"rendered":"

In today\u2019s class, we will look at the essence of HEADLINES <\/strong>– so to say – the print media.<\/p>\n

Of course, there is no doubt at all that writing a headline is one of the more difficult tasks of editing jobs.<\/p>\n

It takes a high concentration on the materials of the story, the facts, and supporting quotations, to render them quickly into a few short words that will tempt the reader to read on, even though the reporter may have put it into a nutshell point.<\/p>\n

Yes, headlines of course draw the attention of the reader into the content of the story.<\/p>\n

Some editors have a natural flair for it at first reading of the copy, but headline writing comes mostly with painstaking practice.<\/p>\n

The best ones are not necessarily quick off the-top-of-the-head ideas; they can be the result of patient fitting with words on a copy pad after subbing on the screen is completed.<\/p>\n

It means, as a sub or editor, it is your professional duty to patiently read the reporter\u2019s script and put same into fewer words to form the headline of the story.<\/p>\n

There might be time for discussion in the case of a big story. Many a good headline is a \u2018committee job\u2019 in which improvements have been worked on the ideas of others.<\/p>\n

Well, because here in Sierra Leone we run tabloids (small) newspapers, it is all the responsibility of editors to shape out headlines of stories to meet readers better understanding of it.<\/p>\n

As rightly discussed above, headlines of big stories must be meticulously looked at, refined and purified before used for publication.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t even ask me why? As journalists we all know that the law of contempt, libel-seditious and the rest exists.<\/p>\n

Yet there is no room for sloppy, ineffective headline writing on any newspaper if it wants to be taken seriously and the reader\u2019s attention.<\/p>\n

It is useful at this point if we have a definition.<\/p>\n

We can say that headline has two main functions:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. It draws the attention of the reader to the content of the story.<\/li>\n
  2. It forms part of the visual pattern of the page.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The first function has to do with words. The sub\/editor is the synthesizer, filtering the material so that its essence is refined into a simple \u2018read me\u2019 message.<\/p>\n

    Take note of the phrase \u2018simple read me message.\u2019 Any headline that is not readable bores readers\u2019 appetite. It makes readers ask \u201cwhat is it that the writer is talking about?\u201d<\/p>\n

    This must be achieved without doing damage to the facts by over-simplification or \u2018bending\u2019.<\/p>\n

    In other words, under pressure to achieve a good headline, the sub\/editor must guard against distortion.<\/p>\n

    Good bye see in my next class. \u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

    From The Editor\u2019s Desk<\/em><\/p>\n

    Stay with Sierra Express Media, for your trusted place in news!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    In today\u2019s class, we will look at the essence of HEADLINES – so to say – the print media. Of course, there is no doubt […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":75801,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[858,1],"tags":[8678,8679],"class_list":["post-24737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorial","category-uncategorized","tag-headline-selection","tag-journalists-meet"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/75801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}