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Thinking about Headlines


There are different ways to do headlines, adopting by different journalistic organizations.

The front page for the Wall Street Journal had the following headline on p.1, on Nov. 22, "Disney Executives Told Board They Lost Faith in Ousted CEO."  Note that every word there is capitalized except for a preposition, "in". Note also, as is common, that the headline is a full grammatical sentence in the present tense. 

This is a form of what is known as an "Up style" of headline typography. 

A more drastic Up style is one in which EVERY LETTER IS UPPER CASE. This is generally used only for very short and dramatic headlines. ARMSTRONG ON MOON.  Headlines suitable for all caps treatment at generally not sentences. They are phrases or sometimes single words. 

But there is also a Down style, typified by the usage of The Guardian, a distinguished London publication. A Guardian headline might read, "China fury at broader US inquiry into Covid.' (See col. one, in the image above.) Note the difference.  Not only different from the drastic moon-landing all-caps style, but different from the Wall Street Journal style cited above. 

Setting aside the initials "US," only two actual words are capitalized. The first word of the first sentence (both the name of a country and the word "Covid," with its totemic significance over recent years. Look at the other examples on the front page displayed above. Normal sentence, in bold face and larger print that the text below them, but not screaming for our attention.  

Down styles are emotionally lower-key than up styles. Up styles are supposed to command your attention. Down styles make their own appeal. "We know, dear reader, that you are serious about learning the news and don't need for us to shout at you."

Sort of like Steve Perry versus Sting, to revert to a question from last week! STEVE PERRY versus Sting.  


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