By Abiola Anyankubi
Headlines are very short summary of a news report. They need to be kept short, simple and straight to the point.Headlines are very important because they announce exciting news and appeal to readers’ hunger for knowledge and information.
The headline needs to be given much time and attention because if the headline is poor, one can’t capture the audience attention.It has to be interesting enough to draw readers’ into reading the full news. Integration of specific numbers and data that is laced with remembrable adjectives, into the headline in an effective way so that the news can be more enticing to the readers should be adopted.
It is extremely difficult to accommondate all the news items on the cover page. Any of them that makes it to the cover page must have been prominent, exclusive, relevant and important to the sought audience.
Headlines attempt to summarize, generate interest, satisfy immediacy needs and direct attention. It is the first impression and a critical barometre for news readers on the information that is to be followed. In nearly all cases, the headline is the single most important element of the news item.
In the recent time, some of the headlines are misleading because they are at variance with the body of the news. Political developments might have influenced this development negatively. Some of these newspapers are just entertaining the reading public thereby jetitioning its functions of education and information. In as much as no one can dictate how the headlines should be casted, it must however be done professionally.
Misleading headlines affect readers’ memory, their inferential reasoning and behaviour intentions as well as the imagined impressions. Some of these headlines are spurious and baseless.It must be noted that this misleading headlines destroy credibility and it will be much more difficult for readers to believe the medium in the immediate future.
It is a statement of fact that editorial is the engine room or the core of the media business as it constitutes over 70% of the entire workforce. The trust of the business rests solely on what is being offered to the reading public. The contents are expected to be truth and nothing but the truth.
However, some of the journalists are doing this delibrately going by what they post on their personal social media handles. They have become traders or business men who specialize in planting stories in the newspapers for financial considerations. This has led some media houses to publish corrigendum on nearly every day. Deliberate falsehoods are being published for a fee. These few people leverage on their contacts with those at the corridors of power to amass wealth for themselves to the detriment of the organizations which they represent.
What media firms sell is the contents. It can therefore be imagined the effect of diluted and adulterated information on the companies’ integrity. It will surely have negative effect on the operations, generally. It won’t be a day event but a gradual one. Effect of this unethical behaviour has led to the sorry state of some media houses.
Headlines must be accurate in implications, spelling and grammar. When readers notice errors, they assume a similar rate of error will continue. They will therefore determine whether it is worth their time to read such a news item or not.
Finally, contents’ creators must ensure that headlines capture the attention of the readers without compromising the essence of the news item.
Abiola Ayankunbi is MD/CEO at AbingMO3 Marketing Management Consultancy
0802 305 1315
abiolaayankunbi@yahoo.com
