As discussed in class, why do you feel Headlines are so important in web content? Please provide me with an example of a headline you clicked on recently (submit the exact headline including a screenshot) and outline in detail why you clicked it. In question #1, I asked why it resonated with you. For this question, I am asking why you actually clicked on it. This cannot be the same headline as question #1 (8 Marks)
As mentioned in class (Briscoe, W6 – A – Crafting Great Headlines (W25).pdf, Slide 5), meeting the standards of today’s average digital user is incredibly challenging. They want to be surprised and presented with interesting, new information, while being impatient and fast moving. So fast moving, in fact, that we have less than 3 seconds to get a headline across to the user before they move on (Briscoe, W6 – A – Crafting Great Headlines (W25).pdf, Slide 9). Headlines are as important as they are because they represent the main notes of the story you’re trying to tell and the tone you’re using to tell it, while being short enough to sound enticing to read (Briscoe, W6 – A – Crafting Great Headlines (W25).pdf, Slides 16-18). If a headline fails to capture a reader immediately, it’s highly unlikely they’ll read further into your content and move on forever.
The article I’m using for this question is from the New York Times, with the headline “How Canadians Are Making Their Anger Toward the U.S. Loud and Clear”.
I clicked on the headline for this article for a few reasons. Beyond my personal interest in the subject matter, the headline is structured as a response to their own query. Knowing what I do about the subject of the article, which I believe well represents the article, I clicked on the article to both validate and verify what I already knew on the subject and learn about other aspects of the story that I may not be aware of. I find the headline well structured and it plays well into emotion as well, taking advantage of my curiosity and interest in the article’s subject.
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