The New York Times’ Steve Lohr has this interesting piece today about how search engine bots, which scan text at rapid speed and place emphasis on “just-the-facts” writing, are perhaps watering down journalistic creativity.
Nic Newman, head of product development and technology at BBC News Interactive, pointed to a few examples from last Wednesday. The first headline a human reader sees: “Unsafe sex: Has Jacob Zuma’s rape trial hit South Africa’s war on AIDS?” One click down: “Zuma testimony sparks HIV fear.” Another headline meant to lure the human reader: “Tulsa star: The life and career of much-loved 1960’s singer.” One click down: “Obituary: Gene Pitney.” “The search engine has to get a straightforward, factual headline, so it can understand it,” Mr. Newman said. With a little programming sleight-of-hand, the search engine can be steered first to the straightforward, somewhat duller headline, according to some search optimizers.
Later in the piece, however, Search Engine Watch’s Danny Sullivan says that journalism schools should start teaching this concise, straightforward form of writing and I agree. While the boiled-down headlines and summaries make take some artistry out of writing, they at least ensure that the articles will get read.
With millions of sources out there to choose from, readers have little time to sift through “artful” headlines to determine if the subject matter interests them. The more abstract or playful or satirical a headline gets, the less likely targeted readers are going to pick that article to read when scanning their RSS readers or searching the web.
So, straightforward, to-the-point headlines are just one way of capturing readers who are faced with endless choices of material. It’s kind of like text-based triage for the digital era — a headline that screams “this is the subject you want” will get picked over one that whispers “well, maybe this is the subject you want but you have to dig deeper to find out.”
Cynthia Brumfield at 10:06 AM|Comments(0)
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