The disappearance of competence of headlines

• Author: Muhamet Mavraj
• Position: University of Pristina
• Pages: 227-238

Vol. 4 No. 1

March, 2018

ISSN 2410-3918

Acces online at www.iipccl.org

227

Academic Journal of Business, Administration, Law and Social Sciences

IIPCCL Publishing, Graz-Austria

The disappearance of competence of headlines

PhD (C.) Muhamet Mavraj

University of Pristina

Abstract

The title is the text locomotive. It draws all the other compositions behind. Newspaper texts are

termed as productions or reproductions of reality but are o en denied their literary feature.

It seems to be hasty denial. Endless examples show that news headlines have extraordinary

power of expression. The transition from printed journalism to online journalism is degrading

the stylistic power of news headlines. This article explains some of the types of degradation

and the reasons related to the new concepts imposed by online journalism. The main factor

that is degrading the title is clickbait, and it is not the only one. The titles either consist of

two or three words, followed by reticence... to robbing clicks or being transformed into

novels. Consequently, the title competence is vanishing. The measurements of the words in

newspaper headlines at di erent times and in two ideological blocks signal that the titles are

being totalitarianized. Meanwhile, the competence of the locomotive is being transferred to

wagons.

Keywords: style, headline, newspaper, click, clickbait, empty calories of information.

Introduction

If the headline is a coherent, natural title, it looks like a head in its body, however, the

fi rst identifying sign of a nature. It has many functions. Three of them are: the headline

summarizes the news, it shows the importance of writing and pulls the reader to turn

it into active.1 It is the message that warns the text and has some autonomy to the

text it represents, but not always full independence. Newspaper texts are termed

as productions or reproductions of reality but are o en denied the literary feature.

Texts are constructions of words, sentences, and paragraphs. The same theorists, who

deny the literary value an informative text, divide the text into indicative, descriptive,

explanatory, and compelling texts. Structurally, the title is part of the small texts

(proverbs, phrases, aphorisms, gra ti, mockery, vowels, slogans, announcements),

and they share many common qualities, according to Halliday (1994), o en out of the

grammatical rules that characterize other texts.

Any kind of title is a fi gure. The di culty lies in its defi nition, whether it is

grammatical - of which type or subtype, if it is literary - of which type or subtype.

The identifi cation process should sometimes be seen in relation to the accompanying

text, with the body text. We exclaim so as long as we see the title as the head of that

body as a coordinating center of the underlying linguistic activities and the possible

stylistic activities underneath it (in the body text). There are scholars who see the

title as a fi gure even when constructed with denotative language, or simply appear

as word-sentences, in a single word, verb verb, eg: “Continue ...” (the second term),

1 Manual për gazetarët e Europës Qendrore dhe Lindore, 1997, 81.