MEDIA, CLEAR INFORMATION AND VAGUE HEADLINES

Information channelled through the media needs to be unambiguous, if it's to be useful to the audience. The challenge though, can come by way of using a not so straight-forward language like English. And the press in Kenya appears to be prone to linguistic shortcomings, which at times result in vague headlines or even doubtful information.

The heading of the above editorial can leave the reader a bit confused because though it may not be apparent, the chosen words make it open to two interpretations.

Crafting headlines is an endeavour that seeks to maximise the impact of chosen words, sometimes against minimal use of available space.

It thus becomes very necessary to leave out 'empty' words like determiners or definite and indefinite articles such as 'the', 'a', 'that', 'an', etc.

Instead, emphasis is put on keywords that are l'oaded' with 'meaning' and words that convey a powerful sense of 'action'.

After all, news revolves around something happening, and reporting this involves use of words that capture the action well.

Going back to the article above, the chosen action word is 'clear' meaning 'remove', 'act' or do something about changing a situation.

Well, the same word also conveys the sense of something being evidently easy to perceive, and hardly possibly to disprove.

So, is the newspaper calling for the 'clearing' of any doubts around a new polio vaccine?

Or are readers being told there are 'clear' doubts about this vaccine?

I need to 'clear' my mind, (you probably should do the same).

HEADLINE WRITING 101: THE 'DUMB-AS' EDITION

A single newspaper is a reflection of the work of many media professionals. And the published product is by design meant to cater for the interests of a diverse readership, especially if it's a national paper. Each publication follows a defined editorial policy and house style. But this does not mean there's a fixed template for writing headlines, like this 'dumb-as' edition.

In an astonishing display of an acute lack of imagination, the Kenyan daily inundated its readers with article headlines hinged on the same style.

From the front page depicted above...

...the trend continued unabated, and unashamedly.

So there was this...

...and this.

That also...

...and this one too.

And there was more...

...of the same type.

It seemed not to matter which page an article was placed...

...or the subject matter.

The sport section too...got its 'unfair' share of the 'conjoined' headline format.

And that concludes this 'dumb-as' edition of Headline Writing 101.

I hope you've not learnt anything worth emulating!