“Clinton questions whether Sanders is qualified to be president,” Washington Post, April 6, 2016. This headline certainly grabs your attention but like thousands of headlines generated daily, is it accurate?
The challenge of any writer or editor is to create a headline that gets people to read the actual story. Have a great story but a bad headline and your work is for naught. On the flip side, a great headline that bends the truth can put the reader off, or worse.
In the case of the Washington Post story, here is what Secretary Clinton actually said, “I think he hadn’t done his homework and he’d been talking for more than a year about doing things that he obviously hadn’t really studied or understood…and that does raise a lot of questions.”
The Washington Post is one of the most credible news outlets anywhere, however in this case I think that this headline pushes the truth a tad too far. Which raises the question, what obligation do writers/editors have when it comes to writing headlines? In my opinion, writers need to stick to the facts..period.
This is important because according to a 2014 study by the American Press Institute, only 4 in 10 Americans typically read past the headline of a news story (you should read their in-depth findings, lots of useful info on how Americans consume news). The browsing nature of news readers is readily apparent, judging by the daily indignation of people reacting on social media solely to headlines they see in their feeds.
For the Washington Post story, I these alternative headlines could have been equally compelling yet stuck to what Clinton actually said: “Clinton questions Sanders policy proposals” or “Clinton questions Sanders understanding of key issues.”
Please tell me what you think and I am happy to help you write compelling headlines for your stories!
Eco-Econ Future 