A not-so-subtle difference
Posted By Chad Jones in Square Pegs on August 9, 2007
At 2:30 a.m. this morning there was a car wreck in south Arlington.
The DMN's headline: "1 dead, four injured in car wreck"
Our headline: "Car wreck in south Arlington leaves one dead, four injured"
One of these things is not like the other. Can you spot the difference?
[10+ to team Star-Telegram for their "1 dies in Arlington car crash."]
Scott, says:
One of the W's is missing from the DMN headline.
Anonymous
2 years, 3 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
HC, says:
The Dallas Morning News headline is more concise and eliminates unnecessary detail.
Anonymous
2 years, 3 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Chad Jones, says:
Ooh, that's a good try, HC. Unfortunately, that's not quite the answer I'm looking for. You're <em>so</em> close, yet so far away.
Verified
2 years, 3 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Mike Orren, says:
HC, I have no idea where Chad's going with this, but your comment illustrates the point I think most people miss about the difference between online and print headlines.
If we were in print, you'd be absolutely right. But online, where heds can show up in all kinds of different places, this is important information to have in deciding whether or not I care about reading a story.
If that was an East Dallas story, I might read -- in this case, I'm not interested enough because of the locale (sorry S. Arlington!).
And if someone is doing a search for Arlington wreck in the news aggregators, they'd find us first.
So that's my difference -- interested to see what Chad's looking for.
Staff
2 years, 3 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Scott Doyle, says:
Think Mike hit the nail on the head with locale not being mentioned in DMN.
My initial guess was the DMN inconsistency on numerical value 1 vs. spelling out four. =p
Verified
2 years, 3 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Chad Jones, says:
Looks like you <em>do</em> have some idea, Mike. You win. Five points to Gryffindor.
Verified
2 years, 3 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Rawlins Gilliland, says:
Silly me, but I think the Pegasus headline follows the what, where and who journalism better than starting with '1 dead'. The latter could be an Iraq update, and more to my persoanl point, I think falls under the tabloid Talmud 'bleeds/leads' cliche' by definition. I like the (what) car wreck, where, (S. Arlington) what (how many if any hurt and/or killed) serves the informational purposes far better than the DMNews version. Better writing/ Better taste/ Better Burger; PegasusNews.com
Verified
2 years, 3 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Jeremy Dunck, says:
You guys really have to stop giving tips to the DMN. :)
Staff
2 years, 3 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Mike Orren, says:
Another good exemplar:
http://roundho.us/wordpress/?p=155
Staff
2 years, 2 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal