5 ms·

Headlines are such an important part of media, it would be so useful if they were used to earnestly inform, rather than attract attention. Idea: ChatGPT chrome

by nomilk 4y ago

Headlines are such an important part of media, it would be so useful if they were used to earnestly inform, rather than attract attention. Idea: ChatGPT chrome extension that replaces the headline with one generated from the actual article.

jjeaff 4y ago
That's a great idea. A neutral 3rd party re-writing headlines. I think that bad headlines are one of the biggest problems in journalism today. I have seen articles posted on social media by people who obviously only read the headline. And when I actually read the headline, the article content is almost completely contradictory to the headline. My understanding is that editors usually write the headlines. They may be the real problem as many of the journalists are doing a pretty good job.
arp242 4y ago
Headlines are too short to inform. There's almost always context and nuance that's just as important as whatever the headline is about. Even the full article often fails to go in enough depth on this, and it's pretty much impossible to summarize that in the headline unless you make it a "headparagraph".
- jfengel 4y ago
  If you've been following the news, a headline is often sufficient. The total ongoing story takes up many books, but the differential between yesterday and today is often quite small. And if you haven't been following it, no newspaper article is going to fill you in on the background. As I said, that's books worth of material. They often try to split the difference, with mixed results. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it just fills the space with vapid, pointless noise -- quotes from irrelevant people, oversimplifications, ludicrous extrapolations, etc. In the worst case that infects the headline, and what could have been one sentence worth of genuine knowledge becomes worse than nothing.

5 ms·

Headlines are such an important part of media, it would be so useful if they were used to earnestly inform, rather than attract attention. Idea: ChatGPT chrome

by nomilk 4y ago

jjeaff 4y ago
That's a great idea. A neutral 3rd party re-writing headlines. I think that bad headlines are one of the biggest problems in journalism today. I have seen articles posted on social media by people who obviously only read the headline. And when I actually read the headline, the article content is almost completely contradictory to the headline. My understanding is that editors usually write the headlines. They may be the real problem as many of the journalists are doing a pretty good job.
arp242 4y ago
Headlines are too short to inform. There's almost always context and nuance that's just as important as whatever the headline is about. Even the full article often fails to go in enough depth on this, and it's pretty much impossible to summarize that in the headline unless you make it a "headparagraph".
- jfengel 4y ago
  If you've been following the news, a headline is often sufficient. The total ongoing story takes up many books, but the differential between yesterday and today is often quite small. And if you haven't been following it, no newspaper article is going to fill you in on the background. As I said, that's books worth of material. They often try to split the difference, with mixed results. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it just fills the space with vapid, pointless noise -- quotes from irrelevant people, oversimplifications, ludicrous extrapolations, etc. In the worst case that infects the headline, and what could have been one sentence worth of genuine knowledge becomes worse than nothing.