Residents of southern Israel spent the night in bomb shelters as Palestinians fired a heavy barrage of rockets and mortars (nearly 200, according to the most recent numbers I saw). The IDF retaliated with air strikes on more than 100 Hamas terror sites.
As we expected, we came across a few headline fails. Headlines matter because many people don’t read articles, just skimming their newspaper, web site or social media feed. Headlines also matter because studies show that they frame the way people read and remember a story. So if a headline omits key information or context, it ultimately misinforms readers. (For a fuller treatment on this, see Why Headlines Matter).
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
A lot of social media outrage was directed at BBC News and Israeli officials said they will lodge a formal complaint. This headline was subsequently changed.
.@BBCWorld this is a formal complaint by @IsraelMFA .This title is a deliberate misrepresentation of reality ( that’s the polite equivalent of “ this is a LIE”, if you don’t get it). Israelis were targeted by Hamas and IDF acts to protect them.Change it IMMEDIATELY!!! @IsraelMFA pic.twitter.com/pqjXuopXgO
— Emmanuel Nahshon (@EmmanuelNahshon) August 9, 2018
This Irish Times headline says nothing about the rocket fire. [UPDATE: The Irish Times amended the headline]
The Sydney Morning Herald and its sister paper, The Age, republished a New York Times dispatch. The Times’ original headline was perfectly reasonable but headline writers for Fairfax Media, the parent company of both Australian papers, clearly missed the plot. Compare the two. [UPDATE: The SMH and The Age headlines were revised.]
This headline from The Independent could be understood to mean the escalation began Enas Khamas and her daughter were killed during an airstrike.
Editors following the dictum of “if it bleeds, it leads,” and insisting on referring to the mother and child’s death would do well to see the Daily Telegraph. I’m not a fan of long headlines that cram in too much info, but at least it’s more balanced.
Not all the headlines we saw were bungled. Hopefully, editors at the BBC, Irish Times, Independent and Sydney Morning Herald will learn from some of these headers:
– Israeli jets bombard Gaza with 150 strikes in response to barrage of rockets
– Fighting between Israel and Hamas escalates on the Gaza border
– Gaza violence flares between Hamas and Israel despite talk of truce
– ‘Terrifying night’ as Israel and Hamas trade airstrikes and rocket attacks
Please contact the editors respectfully asking them to amend their headlines: Irish Times at [email protected], Fairfax Media via Twitter and The Independent’s online form.
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