Headlines

From USAToday.com:

Just another championship: Celebrations in Boston muted

Patriot fans go wild in Boston

These two stories were both on the homepage of USAToday.com and refer to the New England Patriots winning the Super Bowl for the third time in four years. The headlines themselves completely contradict each other, while the actual articles do not.

The first article focuses on the fan deaths that occurred after both the Patriots won the Super Bowl and the Red Sox won the World Series in 2004. The story focuses on the fact there were only two incidents that lead to arrests in Boston after the Patriot’s win this time around, because of an increased police presence in response to the deaths of two fans celebrating the previous wins. From the headline alone, the reader gets the feeling that the celebration intensity was decreased in Boston because of all the success their professional sports teams have been having lately (4 major championships in 4 years). After reading the story, especially interviews with fans in Boston, one realizes that the reason that the celebrations are so muted is because of an increased police presence in wake of the deaths that occurred at previous celebrations. This is best illustrated by the closing quote of a Patriots fan:

Charles Vasco, 18, a student at Northeastern University, and many of his fellow students decided before the game against venturing into the streets.
"The police don't seem to be messing around this time," he said.

A better headline would be:

Increased police presence mutes Super Bowl celebration

The second article focuses on fan reactions at Boston-area bars to the Patriot’s win, and is really nothing more than a reporter getting seemingly drunk fan reactions to their team’s win. The fans are not “going wild,” but just saying how great their team is and how they’ve built a dynasty by winning past 3 out of 4 years. The main problem with this headline is that it contradicts the bigger story listed at the top of the homepage and causes the reader to click on both links to find out the whole story.

A better headline would be:

Patriot fan reactions to team’s championship win

From CNN.com:

Soldier demoted for mud wrestling

This story did not seem to make sense to me until I actually opened the link. It may be sexist to say, but when I see the word “soldier” I automatically think of men. The soldier in this article is a 19-year old female, and was demoted for nude mud wrestling in front of the 105th Military Police Battalion. If I was writing the headline for this story, I’d try to catch more attention by adding two simple descriptors:

Female soldier demoted for nude mud wrestling

I wonder how many more hits that would bring in?