Remaining ethical with Headlines

Andy Kovar
ak840511@ohio.edu

In today's social media driven age journalism has become not only about getting the story out accurately, and quickly, but also about getting people to pick your story out of hundreds of headlines that they see on a daily basis. Today, success is measured by the number of clicks one receives instead of the quality of content in which the publication is turning out. Readers from this new social media era are beginning to have lower attention spans because of the amount of content that is available for them on sites like Twitter and Facebook. This makes it's more difficult for the traditional media outlets to get reads as it must now report the story fairly and accurately, but still have the creative senses to be able to woo its readers into specifically choosing to read their story.

                                        
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These eye catching headlines are not new to newsstands as tabloids like the National Enquirer have perfected the art of catching the readers eye for decades. The difference between now and then is the change in platform. It is not as easy now a days to determine whether the news is coming from a legitimate source when choosing to click on it or not. Consumers used to know what was a news source and what was simply a tabloid with there being less outlets in with to keep track of.

We have all seen them. The sidebar headlines on websites that have flashy headlines with maybe a shocking picture all in the attempt to peak the readers interest. This is called sponsored content in that another company pays for ad space on a website then they are allowed to post their own content in efforts to get people to click and look at their content. These are blurring the news business because it distracts readers from news that they should actually be looking at. Because of this, traditional news outlets must compete by having just as creative headlines while still being ethical in the way they do so.

Columbia University recognized the importance that headlines play in the news telling process and set up rules in which to follow to ensure headlines are intriguing, but still ethical and fair for the reader. One rule that all editors and journalists should follow is to, "Never allow cute, creative headlines to blind you to the need for accuracy. Be alert to headlines that have unintended meanings."

This is something they may feel pressured into by these other outlets. They need to remember that journalists should never stoop down to the level of advertisers otherwise it will ruin the integrity of the business. Outlets must remain fair and accurate not only in the content in which they publish, but also to the reader.