In an era in which publishers rely on search engines and social media to drive traffic to their news coverage, headlines are arguably the most crucial component of every story. News consumers understand this reality, said Subramaniam Vincent, director of the Journalism and Media Ethics program at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University at Santa Clara University. Headlines for major news stories are routinely scrutinized on social media, Vincent said, especially when news outlets revise headlines as stories develop.
Subramaniam Vincent is the director of Journalism and Media Ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics. Credit: Markkula Center.
Paradoxically, few news organizations address the mechanics of headline writing in their ethics codes, Vincent said. Headlines are the first and most important interface between readers and journalists, but the complex process of devising these crucial story-summaries-cum-sales-pitches is mostly opaque.
In a new paper, Guardrails for News Headlining: Principles and Workflow, Vincent calls on the news industry to do better, both in applying ethical principles to the headline writing process and in communicating those principles to audiences.
Vincent acknowledged in an interview that headline writers are undoubtedly under pressure to entice readers. But readers, he said, seem to be concerned not just about obvious clickbait but also about headlines that set false expectations or fail to acknowledge a story’s nuances.
“I wanted to find a way to navigate the issue without ducking the complexity of it,” he said. “There is going to be some conflict. But how do we resolve the conflict with a set of principles that everyone can read and say, “I recognize these?’”
Vincent distilled ethical headline writing into three overarching principles:
- Representing the story with integrity
- Centering valid and authentic claims
- Seeing headlines through the eye of stakeholders
Broadly speaking, he urges headline writers to acknowledge nuance, rather than slipping into the convention of, for example, merely repeating provocative quotes or claims from powerful people.
There are real costs, he argues, when headlines fail to reflect the balance in well-reported news stories that present multiple points of view or push back on assertions by powerful officials. For one, Vincent said, headline writers may elevate mis- or disinformation. For another, they may undermine their own journalists. Sensationalized or misleading headlines, Vincent said, erode public trust.
How Newsrooms Can Improve
Vincent’s study proposes a couple of ways for newsrooms to implement his ideas to improve headlines. The first is to give readers a stake in the process. News outlets can post an explanation of how their headlines are written, just as most media companies post their ethics rules and standards. That page, he suggested, can include a form for readers to voice objections to particular headlines.
In addition, Vincent said, newsrooms can use AI tools to sift through reader comments to identify complaints about headlines. By paying attention to readers, Vincent said, editors can change headlines that fall short of the newsroom’s standards.
Vincent’s second idea is a checklist for headline writers – usually editors – that puts his principles for ethical headlines into practicable form. If editors run through the checklist before publishing, they’re more likely to avoid headlines that mislead readers.
Vincent also calls on headline writers to send potential headlines to reporters for their input. He cited NPR’s system – in which reporters draft potential headlines and have a say in the ultimate selection – as an example of an effective, collaborative process.
Vincent similarly suggests that headline writers consult with the search engine optimization specialists in their newsroom before publishing, since SEO continues to drive reader traffic. But he insists that ethical headlines can be consistent with SEO when headline writers understand the benefits of highlighting diverse stakeholders and emphasizing narrative nuance.
Ultimately, Vincent told me, he expects AI to diminish the importance of the prevailing journalism revenue model of emphasizing clicks. When that model erodes, he said, editors may feel less pressure to come up with provocative headlines. But until then, Vincent said, his simple principles and workflow ideas can help journalists produce better, fairer headlines.