Thoughts from CMU 302

I love movies and I love those cult TV shows that spawn massive followings. In reading this article only one thing came to mind and that is the tag line from Transformers, “Robots in disguise.” But this is not simply an abstract catchphrase for Optimus Prime, today it means something completely different. People today are slowly changing the way they think and act in the pursuit of faster access and knowledge. Now, I haven’t taken many journalism classes but everything I have heard seems to point to headline writing as somewhat of an art. It seems to me this is really the first impression a reader will get from the writer, and we all know first impression means everything. When I am glancing through the newspaper I am more likely to read an article that is rather clever and somewhat humorous because it makes me wonder what else might amuse me in the article. However, in this world of increasing speed and efficiency that “art” is becoming quickly obsolete.

Like Clive Thompson says in his article, the humor and puns are lost on search engines and accordingly get miss filed or discarded altogether. Straight and to the point is how people today want their news but yet a majority of young people are getting their news from entertainment sources like John Stewart and Steven Colbert, this seems a bit like an oxymoron. Is this a call for more sophisticated search engines that can pick on subtle nuance or a call to society to change their consumption habits? We could start to incorporate a model similar to the BBC wherein they use two different kinds headlines, one the speaks to an audience and one that speaks to the machine. Wow, did I really just say that?? We have to write separate headlines for machines…if that is not a glimpse into the Matrix I don’t know what is. I have said many times before throughout my writing progress for its own sake can be just as detrimental to society as stagnation. This is just one man’s opinion but the richness of this society is not the promise of tomorrow but the value of our past. I encourage everyone to roll down those windows and rather than blast the latest chart topper try some Sinatra, the looks you get are quite amusing ; )

Questions

1) What aspects of a headline most often get you to read the article? In other words what catches your attention simply and direct and catchy and entertaining?

2) Why do you think our consumption habits are starting to resemble a more mechanic model? Do you think that this might only be a trend or will it only continue?