Misleading and biased headlines affect the way many readers remember news
A police officer reads his favourite newspaper, Daily Nation, on January 20, 2015. PHOTO | JEFF ANGOTE | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- Studies have also shown that headlines are often more negative, positive, controversial, and so on in tone than the stories of which they are the “head”.
- When I saw this I thought, oh my God, did more people die! Only to realise that they chose to total the deaths for 2014 and 2015. Why repeat, repeat, and repeat?
- The oil business is complicated, but my assessment was that Business Daily has not planted anything I could see.
As a news consumer you should be aware that headlines can influence what you think about the news and your actions.
You should also be aware that editors can strategically use headlines to influence public opinion.
Headlines are an important component of the news. In general, they summarise the gist of a story, sometimes pointing out the most important or interesting aspects. You can scan headlines in a newspaper, read a paragraph here and there, and get a pretty good idea of the news.
Studies have shown that headlines can affect a reader’s interpretation of a story more than the text of the story.
Headlines provide the framing for the story and can determine how information is processed by the reader. Studies have also shown that headlines are often more negative, positive, controversial, and so on in tone than the stories of which they are the “head”.
Headlines are expected to be accurate in relation to stories but can often misrepresent their gist and can be misleading or biased, although remaining technically accurate. Below I present some headlines that our readers thought were misleading, and rightly so in almost all the cases.
The headline thought to be most misleading in recent weeks is the front-page story, “Night raid raises toll of terrorist killings to 500”, published in the Daily Nation on July 8.
Readers in fact said the headline was “celebratory” on behalf of the terrorists. Indeed the headline gave the impression that the 500 killings were all done in one day. However, technically, the headline was not inaccurate, though it was misleading.
The headline gave rise to a “Save Kenya from bad journalism” email campaign. Businessman Adam Jillo sent the initial email to his colleagues. “If we remain silent they will think it is fine,” he said. “What a sad headline.
When I saw this I thought, oh my God, did more people die! Only to realise that they chose to total the deaths for 2014 and 2015. Why repeat, repeat, and repeat?
“All these senseless killings given such prominence are doing two things. Firstly, terrorists are happy that they indeed are winning. They must be pleased with their ‘good’ work getting top headline (sic) without paying for it. Secondly, imagine a would-be investor or tourist landing this morning or waking up to this headline. They will freak and would want to go back home.”
Christopher Wilson followed up the email. “There are many ways of saying the same thing. But as a supposedly responsible member of our Kenyan nation it’s time the Press took full account of the consequences of their actions.” And so the email campaign went on, with Polycarp Igathe coming in to suggest a formal letter of protest to the editorial committee of NMG.
But a formal letter was not necessary. Editor-in-Chief Tom Mshindi had already — to use diplomatic lingo — been seized of the matter.
There are other cases that have been dealt with. For example, Governor Cyprian Awiti was upset by a story and headline published in the Daily Nation of June 8. The headline said: “Homa Bay losing billions to shady investors, claims MP”. I investigated the matter and found that the governor was right. The headline was sensational. It was not supported by the contents of the story. No billions had been lost. Managing Editor Mutuma Mathiu concurred and offered to publish a rebuttal.
A complaint by Mr Igathe, who is the managing director of Vivo Energy Kenya (formerly Kenya Shell), has attracted internal debate. Mr Igathe said a headline, “How Total, Shell rivalry caused biting shortage”, published in the Business Daily of May 14, was “planted to deflect public attention” from the real issues afflicting the petroleum industry.
I looked at the story and talked to Ochieng Rapuro, the Business Daily managing editor. The oil business is complicated, but my assessment was that Business Daily has not planted anything I could see.
The Public Editor is satisfied that incidents of misleading and sensational headlines, while they cannot be eliminated altogether because we all make mistakes, are receiving attention. Mr Mshindi has undertaken to put systems in place to ensure misleading headlines do not keep recurring.
Send your complaints to [email protected]. Call 3288000, mobile 0721989264
