observation of the moment
interested in. today i noticed that 4 of the 23 headlines included
questions.
* GOP tax cut ultimatum: principled or 'temper tantrum?'
{source: CNN international}
* are aliens among us? sort of, NASA says
{fox news}
* can marchionne build jeeps cheaper in italy?
{CNNmoney}
* what do videos say about lebron?
{ESPN}
i'm not sure what to make of it. 1 of 2 things must be true. either
...
i caught a freak day and just happened to get a large number of ?s by
chance.
=or=
it's been this way for awhile and i'm just now noticing it.
i have a pretty strong familiarity with the AP style guide -- especially
for someone that is, for all practicle purposes, illiterate -- and this
definitely wasn't in there a few years ago.
maybe this is style progression thing. like the trailing comma in a
list being deleted (it was optional when i was a kid, it's standard
now).
i guess my headline on this should have been:
* has modern style progressed without b1 noticing it?
posted by b1-66er at 10:34
5 Comments:
Yes, this is a common tactic to get clicks and get people interested. May not be in the AP stylebook because headlines are more important in the online world than they were in the press world.
For validation & more information, see [question headlines]
This practice of using the question mark to disclaim sensationalistic "news" that probably wouldn't stand actual scrutiny has been going on for a while. Jon Stewart called shenanigans on it a couple of years ago.
@TD: google marked your comment as spam. oh, the irony.
this from my pal entropy dave (copied on the original email post):
Interesting. I think it is a rather pathetic attempt at populism, to seem more accessible. Like Cosmo for news.
Enthalpy Lorna, who has 20 years of journalism at major papers under her belt, says that it is a practice that should be very rare. In her words, "It just annoys the reader. Why ask a question, you're the news, shouldn't you know, otherwise what is it doing in the paper."
addendum: i like these comments ... maybe i should consider writing down more things i just notice and think about?
yes, please
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