Sunday, June 8, 2008

Stoopid Hed



The headline says "Wonder Woman finds body on river." No. The copy editor is being pretty silly with this one. The actress who played that character, among other roles, did the finding. If Dustin Hoffman had been the finder, would the editor have chracterized the story as "Tootsie Finds body on river"? I doubt it. Journalism rule No. 38: Don't be cute.

6 comments:

  1. The purpose of a headline is to attract the reader to the story. This headline does that. The connection between the headline and the actress is addressed in the first line of the story. Is it silly? Sure. But there is nothing journalistically wrong with it. Please avoid giving your slanted opinion and stick to what you know, spelling mistakes and verb tenses.
    Oh, and can I get a copy of those rules? You seem to have left out the link to the site...

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  2. I agree. The heds are getting more unprofessional each day. "Veep" for Vice President....

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  3. Sweetskunk: if a headline is inaccurate or silly, there's a lot "journalistically wrong" with it. OWW caught a good one to point out, methinks.

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  4. What's with stick to "spelling" and "tenses" from s. skunk? that's not really what this blog has been about (how refreshing!) sounds like s. skunk wrote the hed and is feeling the heat.

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  5. want a journalism rule, sweetskunk? stay away from pop-culture references in heds (and pretty much everywhere else).

    "wonder woman" hasn't been on the air since 1979, and i imagine it hasn't been in in widespread syndication since then. by tagging lynda carter as "wonder woman" in the hed, you fail to attract any reader who doesn't associate carter with that series. there's a good chance that the hed as written is wasted on a large number of people who weren't aware of the series or carter's celebrity at the time. there's an even better chance that it's completely lost on "the younger reader" -- you know, the one we're losing in droves; the one we're all trying to attract.

    there is no site with the rules. you learn them by working hard with good journalists; by being conscientious, dedicated and attentive; by always striving to do right by the reader; and by not being a snot when someone with more experience tells you that you've done something wrong.

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  6. These are about the worst arguments I have ever read on this blog. Google this story. Tell me how many media outlets use 'Wonder Woman' in the headline. Go on, do it. A lot, huh? Are they all wrong? OWW, while I agree with you on some points (the DeSoto writers aren't great, there are too many people who get away with cutting and pasting) most of the time I get the impression that you just have a grudge against this company. You know, journalism isn't brain surgery. Aside from the core tenets (accuracy, fairness etc ...) there are no hard and fast rules, perhaps guidelines but not rules in the way you suggest. It's all subjective. Maybe it wasn't back in 1960 when you were a cub reporter and the inverted pyramid ruled the pages (and newspapers were the main source of news), but it is now. I know you're not in the biz anymore, but people are overstimulated and yes it does take a bit more work to get people to read a story. Do you ever read the NY Times? They have fantastic headlines and many are quite clever. And no, I am not comparing the Sun to the NY Times, I'm just showing you the fallacy of this argument. Anyway, I encourage young journalists at the Sun and elsewhere to take their cues from the professionals who are in tune with today's ever changing media market and not someone who's clinging to the bottom rungs of journalism by picking on a small, understaffed paper in a blog.

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