1What is online journalism? - Ayo Menulis FISIP UAJY

Writing 117
Leslie Sellers (1968) offers a number of basic rules that every
headline writer would do well to remember:
use the active voice and the present tense whenever possible
(‘MPs urge Blair to act’ rather than ‘Call for action from
MPs’;
avoid punctuation (e.g. commas and apostrophes) in headlines;
as Sellers remarks ‘a comma means a two-part headline which
is slower’;
avoid the anonymous he, she or they; specify occupation, age,
etc. and personalize whenever appropriate (Bush instead of US
President);
avoid cramming in too much information;
in the case of a double-line heading, try to make the first line
make sense on its own because it represents a complete
thought on its own.
Sellers also warns against the over-use of headline jargon. He
believes words such as ‘bid’, ‘slash’ and ‘rapped’ are okay because
they’re short and make the point quickly but
there is a danger here. Words such as quit, probe, rush, cut,
ban, dash, slash, crash, quiz and hits are so useful that they
tend to be overworked. They become part of the lazy sub’s
armoury. Instead of being kept for the occasion when no
other word will do the job, they are used out of habit, so that
the paper is filled to overflowing with them.
Some online publishers would object to the use of any of these
words, ever. The BBC advise against what they call ‘jargon and
clichés’ such as ‘slammed’ and ‘blasted’ and “screamers” (use of
exclamation marks). The use of such headline language is very
much down to the individual house style of news operations and,
as Sellers points out, the imagination, or lack of it, of the subeditor.
Another important consideration is the spread of your readership.
Sellers advises against specific place names in headlines
unless they have a specific purpose. This is a particular danger for