I would love for you all to become headline sleuths with me. This is from a letter I wrote last week to the editor of our local paper:
I have been through a few transformations in my life. In the Biblical sense and in the way the word is commonly used, a transformation means that a person or a situation has improved in a significant way. When we want to convey that something has changed in a negative way, words like degrade or deteriorate are commonly used. This newspaper used the following headline from an AP article: “Supreme Court Rejects Arguments in North Carolina Case That Could Have Transformed US Elections.” The article was not about how the court turned down a desirable change in the election process. It was not about a case that had the potential to delight everyone and change our lives for the better. It was about the court denying a state’s request to exert total control over how much our voices matter at the voting booth. I can’t stress enough how important it is that headlines accurately reflect a situation. And because the word choice in a headline influences our understanding of the news, we readers need to read beyond the headline to make sure we grasp the article’s meaning. In the case of this Supreme Court ruling, a headline indicating that the case had the potential and the intent to demolish our democracy would have conveyed the truth of the matter.
During the pandemic I attended an online workshop on writing op-ed pieces. Studies have shown that op-ed pieces are effective: they do change people’s minds. Maybe not everyone is drawn in by the ringing clarity of your argument, but some people are. That’s a definite motivator to make your voice heard among your local newspaper readers.
Most people either vaguely tune into a news source or skim through different papers and media reports. Paying attention to the news headlines and chyrons at the bottom of the screen is an important role for us to play in educating the public. It is especially important to speak up when the words used are misleading, to detect bias and call it out, and to be the voice of representation on sides of an issue that are being ignored.
