Headlines: 101

I really enjoyed learning about headlines this week. It was interesting to see how many different ways one can write a headline. I love reading articles on ESPN and always thought they did a good job at writing. This week I frequently tried finding good headlines to use from their website for the assignments. I was saddened to realize that ESPN doesn't do a very good job at keep with a specific headline rule. Here is an example I found:

Jones: Romo will back up Prescott this week

While this headline isn't cringe worthy it does break a rule. It is better to always put the "messenger" at the end of a headline. A large majority of ESPN headlines fail in stressing the message more than the messenger.

Something else that caught my attention was "sponsored" headlines. I noticed that advertisements like to sneak up on you and pretend they are actual news stories. This isn't a bad tactic; however, they might need to be more original than this:

This game will keep you up all night

For most viewers, headlines like this scream an advertisement. It try's to pull excitement and a desire to learn the answer; however, most people smell a advertisement before reading the entire headline.

To end this blog I want to finish with a headline I really enjoyed. I found it on KSL and it read the following:

Shoeless, Shirtless, Breathless, Aussie Lawmakers Still Vote

I loved this headline because it leaves you wanting more. They found the perfect words to give you enough information but yet left you wanting more. They did a good job at adding a humorous tone to the story which only encourages readers to read the whole story. It made me feel like reading the story will be worth my time.