The headline limits to the north with sensationalism

In very few words, the headline must condense the meaning of a news item or an opinion, invite reading and also sell a topic commercially and aim to have impact. It is not surprising that in verbal scarcity inversely proportional to the size of an article, excesses or defects are as amplified as they are visualized with thick and colored letter bodies. Titling is always a risk, but one must not play at twenty-one, as the headline borders on sensationalism to the north. Be that as it may, headlines are and will be a source of controversy whether one wants them to be or not, one never titles to everyone's liking, and the debate reaches the Defender's mailbox, who must echo it and strive to make it enriching.I select three emails from subscribers regarding the matter. Jaume Molsosa comments that “In the Friday, April 24th edition, on page 42, there is the following headline: ‘Lamine Yamal will not play with Barça again this season’. If not with Barça, with which team should Lamine play? The wording is clearly aimed at attracting readership by generating a non-existent doubt in the reader. Again, I demand more seriousness and fewer clickbaits in headlines, which should be less malicious”. Luis Felipe Lorenzo, who is a colleague and has already helped us detect errors in other cases, “would like to point out a possible spelling mistake in the headline, saying austíac instead of austríac ”. Finally, Venanci Saborit points out: “After the entire conflict regarding education, strategic for the future of Catalonia, was it necessary to announce the agreement in ARA with this headline? Have you lost your minds?: ‘Education and the majority unions reach an agreement for 50 euros more’”. I have asked for the opinion of Dr. Josep M. Casasús, whom we are fortunate to have daily in our pages in the Abans d’ARA section. Casasús is an emeritus professor at the UPF, where he was dean of the Faculty of Communication and ombudsman, and he was also the reader's advocate for La Vanguardia , among many other professional and academic dedications that ennoble our profession. This is his commentary:«Headlines in newspaper texts appeared in the mid-19th century. In early press, information was not titled. It was the transitional journalism towards modernity that incorporated headlines with an index-like, enunciative style. In cases like those consulted, aseptic phrases such as “The Lamine Yamal issue,” “The Education conflict,” would have appeared then, repeated every day as long as there was a case. It was 20th-century journalism that introduced current explanatory titling. Titling in printed newspapers involves normative constraints: economy of editorial space (not leaving blank spaces and not breaking a word at the end of a line) and extreme conciseness. This design dictatorship forces a semanticization that can creak, especially when due to editing haste or carelessness, spelling errors or slips of subjectivity are committed. Digital journalism is now heading towards regressive routines, typical of the 18th century. On social networks, there are no longer headlines. And in digital newspapers, accredited formulas of modern journalism like the lead and the inverted pyramid, which facilitate and speed up reading, are declining. Perhaps titles will also decline...»I thank readers Molsosa, Lorenzo and Saborit, and Josep M. Casasús, for making us think aloud about this journalistic essence that is the headline, and I consider colloquial the expression about whether we have drunk our wits in matters where we should be profoundly abstinent. My thanks also to Valeri Serret, whose email reached me just as I was closing the section, but which I want to reflect because it is of great interest. It refers to a headline that, although explained under the umbrella of sponsored content, deserves another explanation from a professional point of view: “Catalan meets the expectations of the National Pact for Language”. From a journalistic point of view, it is therefore debatable, as the reader notes, that “the subject uttering this phrase should be the Government, and as it stands it looks like journalistic information”; even more so, I add, when the article is signed by “editorial staff”. I insist – I have stated this on other occasions – that we should avoid signing these pensioned pieces as “editorial staff”, to favor paragraph 7 of the Code of Ethics for Journalism in Catalonia, which states: “Formulas of promotion or advertising under the deliberate guise of journalistic information must be rejected”.Minimum text in a tweet, minimum anonymity of tweeters The issue of teachers, which we have also touched upon above, has moved and will move a lot of journalism given its transcendence and social, cultural and political repercussions. It is a sensitive issue to which we must be sensitive from our practice. Mercè Anguera, a highly recognized writer and also a teacher, sends this email to the Defender's mailbox, which I reproduce in its entirety:“I am writing to you to lodge a complaint about a comment that appeared in the "A les Xarxes" section this Sunday, May 31, regarding the agreement between the Department of Education and teachers' unions. The comment is by Magí Hildebrandt, and my complaint is not about the content, even though, as a retired teacher, I find it inappropriate and offensive (it talks about the real world as if school were not, about productivity, about prize , about the education system as if it were the sole responsibility of teachers). In the same section, there are two tweets expressing favorable opinions, I suppose with the idea of showing a significant range of ways of seeing the issue, and this is one of the strengths of your newspaper.I complain because the tweeter Hildebrandt is defined only as a political scientist, and an important fact is omitted: he is, or has been, the head of the list for the FNC in the demarcation of Lleida, which I think is relevant, and should be specified. If the section's criterion is not to mention the political affiliation of the tweeters, surely a tweet from someone else expressing a similar opinion could be found.To put it simply, if I had known the tweet was from a far-right leader, I wouldn't have gotten angry: they are what they are, and what they write has the value and purposes it has. But if I take it as a tweet from a professional, I think a crude opinion dignifies itself. And it hurts more.For me your newspaper is a reference, always –he concludes–. And I take this opportunity to thank you for how you address, and how you prioritize, topics related to childhood, parenting, families and school, the voices you have made us hear. From the beginning you have marked a before and after.”The deputy director David Miró explains the criteria of the "A les Xarxes" section: “In choosing tweets, we try to be pluralistic about current events and anonymous people, and this means we can't know who each person is or what their background or ideology is. In general, we avoid including politicians, who already have enough prominence in the newspaper's pages, and if we do, we specify it because we consider that tweet to have been news or to have generated debate. In the case mentioned, we were not aware of his militancy and we should have either looked for another profile with a similar opinion (to avoid confronting politicians with non-politicians) or we should have specified it. We take note of it”.The Defender's criterion reinforces the opinions of Mercè Anguera and David Miró. Precisely because in the social media section we seek to give voice to people who remain outside the media spotlight, we must strive to provide precise information about their profile to guide the reader who naturally does not know them. Minimum text in a tweet, minimum anonymity of tweeters. The Reader's Ombudsman takes note of doubts, suggestions, criticisms, and complaints about the newspaper's content in its digital and paper editions, and ensures that the treatment of information is in accordance with the deontological codes . To contact the Reader's Advocate you can send an email to [email protected] or record a message of no more than one minute to the WhatsApp number 653784787. In all cases, identification with name, surnames, and DNI number is required.