The Headline

Headlines indicate the general subject and interest level of the story, as well as provide readers with a brief summary of each story. Thus, they summarize and advertise articles. Even without reading a newspaper, busy people may get a picture of the current news looking only at headlines.

The headline size tells us how important each story is. The largest headlines are on the most important stories. Both the size and style of a newspaper’s headlines give us a good idea about the newspaper itself - conservative or sensational in its approach.

Each news story is told three times - in the headline, in the lead, and in the body of the story. The most important of these, as well as the hardest to write, is the headline.

According to their function, headlines can be classified into thematic and sensational. Thematic headlines either introduce the topic of the story (type Ia: New Project for Ulster), or summarize its contents (type Ib: Ministers Injured in Riots Over Lost Crash), the latter being especially common in the case of brief news items. Sensational headlines attract readers’ attention often without specifying the topic of the material and may even be misleading (type II: Trick or Treat).

Each headline expresses a complete thought which may be quite compressed. Very often it is a sentence, containing a subject and a predicate (Yeltsin Dismisses Hard-liners). But quite often headlines represent a variety of syntactic patterns.

special language

Headlines are the short titles above news reports (e.g. RUSSIAN WOMAN LANDS ON MOON). English news headlines can be very difficult to understand. One reason for this is that headlines are often written in a special style, which is very different from ordinary English, In this style there are some special rules of grammar, and words are often used in unusual ways.

grammar

a) Headlines are not always complete sentences. Many headlines consist of noun phrases with no verb.

_{MORE WAGE CUTS}

_{HOLIDAY HOTEL DEATH}

_{EXETER MAN'S DOUBLE MARRIAGE BID}

b) Headlines often contain strings of three, four or more nouns; nouns earlier in the string modify those that follow.

FURNITURE FACTORY PAY CUT ROW

Headlines like these can be difficult to understand. It sometimes helps to read them backwards. FURNITURE FACTORY PAY CUT ROW refers to a ROW (disagreement) about a CUT (reduction) in pa y at a FACTORY that makes _FURNITURE.

^{c) Headlines often leave out articles and the verb be.}

SHAKESPEARE PLAY IMMORAL SAYS HEADMASTER SCHOOLBOY WALKS IN SPACE

d) In headlines, simple tenses are often used instead of progressive or perfect forms. The simple present is used for both present and past events.

BLIND GIRL CLIMBS EVEREST {= ... has climbed)

STUDENTS FIGHT FOR COURSE CHANGES (= ... are fighting . ..)

The present progressive is used to talk about changes. Be is usually dropped.

BRITAIN GETTING WARMER, SAY SCIENTISTS TRADE FIGURES IMPROVING

e) Many headline words are used as both nouns and verbs, and nouns are often used to modify other nouns (see paragraph 2b). So it is not always easy to work out the structure of a sentence. Compare:

US CUTS AID TO THIRD WORLD {= The US reduces its help ... cuts is a verb, AID is a noun.)

AID CUTS ROW (= There has been a disagreement about the reduction in aid. AID and CUTS are both nouns.)

CUTS AID REBELS {- The reduction is helping the revolutionaries, cuts is ^{a noun, AID is a verb.)}

f) Headlines often use infinitives to refer to the future.

PM TO VISIT AUSTRALIA

HOSPITALS TO TAKE FEWER PATIENTS

g) For is also used to refer to future movements or plans.

TROOPS FOR GLASGOW? (= Are soldiers going to be sent to Glasgow?)

h) Auxiliary verbs are usually dropped from passive structures.

MURDER HUNT: MAN HELD (= ... a man is being held by police.)

SIX KILLED IN EXPLOSION (= Six people have been killed ...) Note that forms like HELD, attacked are usually past participles with passive meanings, not past tenses (which are rare in headlines). Compare:

^{AID ROW: PRESIDENT ATTACKED {= ... the President has been attacked.)}

_{AID ROW: PRESIDENT ATTACKS CRITICS} (= ... the President has attacked her critics.)

BOY FOUND SAFE (= The missing boy has been found safe; he is safe.)

BOY FINDS SAFE (= A boy has found a safe.)

i) As and in are often used instead of longer connecting expressions.

HOSPITAL BOSS AXED AS PATIENTS DIE (= ... because patients die.)

FOOTBALL MANAGER IN CAR CRASH

j) A colon (:) is often used to separate the subject of a headline from what is said about it.

STRIKES: PM TO ACT

MOTORWAY CRASH: DEATH TOLL RISES

k) Quotation marks ('...') are used to show that words were said by somebody else, and that the report does not necessarily claim that they are true.

CRASH DRIVER ‘HAD BEEN DRINKING'

l) A question mark (?) is often used when something is not certain.

CRISIS OVER BY SEPTEMBER?

In some newspapers, for example in New York Times or International Herald Tribune, there may be a series of headlines for a single story. In newspaper terminology, each complete headline is called a deck. If another headline is added, the result is a multiple-deck headline (main headline: Winter’s First Snowstorm Makes Up for the Lost Time; additional headline: The snow brings hardship for some and magic for others).

Once popular single-column headlines are being replaced by spreads - headlines extending horizontally across two, three, or four columns. A headline extending the full width of the page, is called a banner or a streamer. They are generally at the top of the page, but may be used elsewhere.

The short lines to be seen above main headlines in order to highlight or introduce them are called kickers. A kicker is generally in smaller or lighter type than the main headline and it is often underlined. It may be followed by a dash or a series of dots (a kicker: Today’s debate: Revamping Health Care; a headline: Too Many HMOs Stint on Emergency-Room Care).

Subheads may be used in long stories between paragraphs as miniature headlines.

To attract attention, headlines make use of particularly expressive words and different stylistic devices producing a strong emotional effect such as metaphor, allusion, idiom, pun, alliteration, slang and many others.

Headline writing requires special skill. Major newspapers often employ special headline writers.

Assignment 1

In available British or American newspapers find examples of different types/designs of headlines: single-column, spreads, banners, kickers, multiple-deck headlines and subheads. Try to relate your examples with the significance of the news in each case.

Assignment 2

Analyze the following funny examples of real headlines from the Columbia journalism Review containing misprints, double meaning and grammatical goofs - cases when words turned against intended meaning.

1. Former man dies in California.

2. Terminal smog not lethal.

3. Giant panda gives birth to baby boy.

4. Neanderthal man barbecued.

5. Ceremony end careers of 38 seniors.

6. City may impose mandatory time for prostitution.

7. Indian ocean talks.

8. Reagan wins on budget but more lies ahead.

9. Lions to install officers in zoo.

10. Two Soviet ships collide, one dies.

11. Teachers strike annoying students.

12. Panda mating fails, veterinarian takes over.

13. Pope walks in quake area - 3,000 dead.

14. Bill to help poor facing early death.

15. Sharks stop search for span collapse victims.

16. Criminally insane bill passes.

17. Caribbean stability worries diplomats.

18. Complaints about NBA referees growing ugly.

19. Kicking baby considered to be healthy.

20. New housing for elderly not yet dead.

21. Wives kill most spouses in Chicago.

22. New Missouri U Chancellor expects little sex.

23. Man eating piranha mistakenly sold as pet fish.

24. Chester Morrill, 92, was fed secretary.

25. Deer Kill 130,000.

26. Chou remains cremated.

27. Iraqi head seeks arms.