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The bag-of-nouns headline is a particular staple of regional British journalism. While bags of nouns are frequently used in both local and national headlines to
by jameshart 7y ago
The bag-of-nouns headline is a particular staple of regional British journalism. While bags of nouns are frequently used in both local and national headlines to describe the subjects of stories - CAR PARK PLUNGE DEATH VICAR is a succinct way of clarifying, our of all the death vicars, which death vicar this particular story relates to - but it tends to fall to local news to report on the various events which befall each death vicar - the APOLOGY, the ENQUIRY, the TRIBUTES, the COURT APPEARANCE, etc. as the story runs its course. National news tends only to run such stories when there is action, or closure, or a comment from a celebrity - CAR PARK PLUNGE DEATH VICAR FINALLY CAPTURED, or JUSTICE FOR CAR PARK PLUNGE DEATH VICAR, or CAR PARK PLUNGE DEATH VICAR ‘MISUNDERSTOOD’ CLAIMS BIG BROTHER CONTESTANT.
As a result they tend to resort to the occasional verb or adjective, while local press sticks to just the nouns.
On the other hand, US journalism tends to use prepositional phrases for their identifying markers - PRIEST IN PARKING LOT DEATH - which leads to ‘crash blossoms’ when they put verbs on the end: PRIEST IN PARKING LOT DEATH PROTESTS.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- benj111 7y ago"The bag-of-nouns headline is a particular staple of regional British journalism" Strikes me as more tabloid that regional? Maybe not in my region, regional?? Although I'm sure the Sun would have gone with CAR PARK DEATH PLUNGE PRIEST. The readership loves a good old death plunge.
- FearNotDaniel 7y agoMy dad's old tabloid-satire favourite, which does admittedly contain a few non-nouns: MAD GAY PRIEST IN SEX CHANGE MERCY DASH TO PALACE
- aasasd 7y agoHad to take another look at the “China Ferrari sex orgy death crash,” and lo it says Dublin right there: https://i.imgur.com/of9ZaGN.jpg https://i.imgur.com/of9ZaGN.jpg
- jameshart 7y ago(Careful - Dublin is very much not 'British'. Although that headline is from the Metro, which probably shares editorial content with British regional editions of the same paper, so... yes, an example of the same cultural phenomenon.)
- aasasd 7y agoI'm absolutely sure that pollination of the Irish culture by the British is inevitable, unless the Irish refuse to permit anything British to cross the border.