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It has become the rule that even a good article must have a horrible title. Otherwise, who will click through to see what has been written? It's a real shame, b
by bradleyland 13y ago
It has become the rule that even a good article must have a horrible title. Otherwise, who will click through to see what has been written? It's a real shame, because the title isn't really reflected by the content.
The actual title: "The Bomb Didn't Beat Japan... Stalin Did"
A more accurate title: "The Bomb Didn't Beat Japan... There Were Many Confluent Factors"
The latter is something you'd expect to read on an academic paper, where the former is about par for the course when it comes to journalism.
- lobster_johnson 13y agoAbsolutely. I thought it was a very well-written article despite the hyperbolic, misleading title.
- Sharlin 13y agoAs the sibling comment states, writers rarely get to pick their own titles.
- moogleii 13y agoThis may be common knowledge to some, but it wasn't to me: I complained about titles to a friend who writes for a pretty big site, and she pretty much admitted that the author's don't really pick/control the titles. The editors do, and it really is pretty geared for link bait.
- dragonwriter 13y ago> [...] the author's don't really pick/control the titles. The editors do, and it really is pretty geared for link bait. Note that this practice is much, much older than the internet; hyberbolic headlines sell newspapers as well as driving people to click on links, and headline writers have been taking that into consideration forever.