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Social Media and The Importance of Headline Accuracy

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As public trust in media and news coverage continues to drop with considerably divide driven by partisanship and information being turned into entertainment, new challenges are faced by the profession when it comes to serving the public interest in being informed, even during times of global emergencies and pandemics. Here we discuss the issue of headlines being used to either promote disinformation or being misrepresented to undermine public trust in the coverage of important topics. These are vital challenges for journalists in today's media environment, especially when it comes to earning back public trust and keeping said public informed on important matters.

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Solution Summary

A discussion about the importance of headline accuracy, especially in the context of the social media age where important articles can be misrepresented by others or dismissed entirely due to how the headline content is framed. This presents real challenges for journalists and editors in today's media environment.

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In the current age of heightened media and press scepticism, especially in the form of general public apathy and distrust - part of it fuelled by a paradoxically lesser accountable form of alternative and independent online media - there's a tall order of challenges faced by mainstream journalists when it comes to producing content that is both compelling but also trustworthy for the average reader. Traversing the online sphere can risk many people tuning out entirely from mainstream media discourse, and this can have negative ramifications for both the profession but also the public's ability to be accurately informed.

One such issue of contention is headlines; many are well aware of terms like "click bait" and words like "sensational" being used to describe and dismiss a lot of content being produced these days, especially in the midst of a global pandemic where scientifically misleading disinformation has brought a whole new dimension of challenges to public health and well being. For the sake of presenting an illustrative overview of this issue, coverage of the information and science around the pandemic will serve as central examples.

All too often, dismissive and distorted counter-narratives have been framed around important coverage of medical and scientific developments in this area, and it's almost always involved some sort of attempt to undermine the release by either attacking the summarised content or even the headline. Generally such attempts will include the charge that the headline content ...

Solution provided by:
Kade Storm, MA
Education
  • MA, London Metropolitian University
  • BSc, London Metropolitan University & University of Derby
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