Headlines and its functions

Headlines – its Functions

Writing headlines, it has been said, is easy. All you have to do is make them accurate, fair, clear, precise, punchy, thoughtful, inviting, relevant, urgent and readable and do it in half a dozen words, often in three or four minutes. Obviously, that’s stretching the point. The truth is headline writing is often the most difficult and demanding part of a copy editor’s job. What a reporter said in 30 words or more in a lead, a headline writer might have to say in six words or less. But it can be done. It requires skill and a command of the language. Most of all, it requires imagination.

In this age of short attention spans, if a story has to exert a pull on the reader it has to have a catchy headline.  Headline is like a signpost that directs the reader to the story. It also determines the number of the people who go through the story. The role of headlines in making a story striking has always been a very important subject matter among the editorial staff. Giving attractive headlines to a story is an art. By writing headlines, a story can be made or dented. An improper headline, which lacks clarity, may deprive the story the importance and readership that it deserves. In a headline the main objective is to convey the maximum meaning using minimum words.

Headlines should not only be indicative of what story is all about but also convey the significance of the story. A headline is defined as a line or collection of lines of display type that precedes a story and summarizes it or introduces it. A good headline should be able to attract the attention of a casual reader as well. A headline should speak out and stimulate the reader. The main problem is that telegraphic words are used to put the maximum meaning in a very short space, because the area that a headline can occupy is very limited and the short headline must also convey a complete sense.

The main function of the headline is to index the news and attract the reader. It should also convey the relative significance and seriousness of the story to the hurried reader. It should supplement the display package of the newspaper with its attractive presentation. Another function of the headlines is to lend the character and stability to newspaper. The consistent use of familiar types and style of headlining gives a newspapers’ unswerving look that its readers identify. Headline is one of the significance cues used in the newspapers. Sometimes, the number of columns the headline is spread across and the font type and size used, determine the significance of a story.

Characteristics of good headlines

The first newspaper in the American colonies in 1690 contained no headlines. Nobody had thought of them yet. Besides, literate colonists were starved for news and needed no headlines as inducements to read every story in the newspaper. Today’s proliferation of media competing for reader’s time and attention boosts the importance of headlines.

Good headlines have these characteristics:

§     Accuracy in fact, tone, scope and focus

§     Emphasis on the main theme of the story

§     Clear, succinct, grammatical, easy to read and to understand

§     Vitality through strong, active verbs

§     Balanced and fair

§     Tasteful

§     Fresh and immediate

§     Legally sound (avoid libel)

Types of headlines

1.        Banner headline: Spread across eight columns they are used rarely on important occasion to send a signal that something very important has happened.

2.        Kicker headline:  Conventional headline used when a headline cannot be writer in one line. A line above the main line is a different, half the size of that runs no more than mid way compared the main line is called a kicker. This type of headlining is used to dress up a page by giving it variety and clarity.

3.        Hammer:  It is exactly opposite of kicker. Here smaller type is the main headline whereas the kicker is in the bigger type and usually in capital letters. Usually hammers do not extent beyond one or two words.

4.        Boxed headline: As name indicates is framed in a rectangular box.

5.        Multi deck headlines

a) Flush left

b) Flush right

c) Pyramid

d) Inverted pyramid

e) Hanging indent

6.        Jump head: headline given to a continued part of a story carried in some other page as a jump.

7.        Labels:  Permanent headlines that appear in newspapers on a regular basis like listings, reviews, careers, city notes, etc.

8.         Barker: In which one line usually one word is set in large tyoe over deck of smaller headline

9.        Blanket head: Headline covering all columns occupied by a story or combination of related stories.

10.    Block heading: Headline enlarged photographically from proof    useful for producing headlines in larger size than normally vailable

11.    Cross heads or cross lines: Sub heads placed in text between paragraphs.

12.    Drop head: In which each line is set further to the right

13.    Eyebrow: Short line in smaller type, often underlined, above main deck of headline also called teaser, highline or strap.

14.    Overbanner: Banner headline running higher than the nameplate or flag of the newspaper. Also called sky line and over the roof (in US).

15.    Overline: Display type over a picture

16.     Screamer: Crude sensational headline (exclamation marks, question marks etc)

17.    Shotgun head: Two or more decks of headline on the same story

18.    Side head: Small subsidiary heading in the body of a story set left, instead of centered (cross head)

19.    Streamer: Headline running across top of all or most of the columns in inner pages

20.    Tinted headline: One in which the black of the type os softened to gray

21.    Teaser: Headline or caption which rather than informing the reader attracts him to read.

The skills necessary for successful headline writing include:

1) Accurate perception of the story

2) A vocabulary that is both broad and deep

3) A sharp sense of sentence structure

4) A keen eye for ambiguity.

 

Four functions of a headline:

1. It gets the reader's attention.

2. It summarizes or tells about the article.

3. It helps organize the news on the page.

4. It indicates the relative importance of a story.

Tips for writing Headline

1.      Best headline writers are spontaneous and creative; the best headlines instantly come to you.

2.      Headline writers have to be the best writers at the newspaper.

3.      Many times, the best headlines you come up with cannot be printed!

4.      Continuity leads to better headlines; one must write them day after day toget good at it.

5.      Read others' headlines to get ideas, but doing so isn't necessarily going tomake you a better headline writer.

6.      The most-effective headlines are those that give an old cliché a new twist; readers are familiar with the cliché, but something different about it will reel them in.

7.      The more conversational the headline, the more the readers will like it.

8.      Don't be so quick to abandon using articles such as "a," "and" and "the"; sometimes these words are needed for clarity. Also, headline styles changeover time.

9.      Don't repeat the lead in a headline.

10.  Write a better headline than the lead. And don't give away the punch line of a feature story that has a surprise ending.

11.  Be aware of any unintended double meanings.

12. Avoid Bad Breaks at the end of lines, such as dangling prepositions or conjunctions.

13.  Don't get into the habit of relying on squeezing or stretching the headline type to fit the space. To trained eyes, it can look sloppy, especially when the "doctored" headline appears near other headlines.

Source: Internet