I love what I do. I realize there are many people working in this country and around the world who can’t say that and I thank the universe every chance I get for getting to do something that I’m passionate about and that I think is important to society.
Not every story I — or any journalist — writes will be earth shattering, groundbreaking news that will topple the status quo, but every story has a reason and purpose, even the ones about local bake sales and a ribbon cutting ceremony at a new grocery store. So it bothers me when people blindly criticize journalism.
A friend of mine recently shared a 2019 story on her social media that had the headline “The headline isn’t the whole story.” I read through the article and moved on with my day, but I started thinking about that story again after attending an event in Orlando a few weeks ago that featured a guest lecturer. During the lecture, the speaker talked about the importance of getting your message out to people and the best methods in which to do that. During the speech, he began talking about news articles and said, and I’m paraphrasing, “When I read the news, I only read the headline and then I move on. Everything I need to know from a story is in the headline.”
As someone who writes the news, I was more than a little irritated by the comment and immediately thought back to the story my friend shared. I wish more people would read the news, and I hope the ones who do read more than just the headlines.
A perfect example of this came across my social media feed recently when a local TV station posted a story with the headline “Kentucky man sues employer for throwing him a birthday party, and now they owe him $450K.” While this headline is technically true — and absolute click bait — it is nowhere near the complete story of what happened to this Kentucky man and based on the comments on the post, you can tell which people only read the headline.
The full story is the Kentucky man, who has an anxiety disorder and “being the center of attention” causes him to have panic attacks, asked his office manager, who arranges birthday celebrations for employees, not to throw him a birthday party. The office manager did so anyway, which caused the man to have a panic attack and spend his lunch break in his car, away from the party.
The following day, the man was called into a meeting where he was criticized for not attending his own party, sent home and then fired “because of the events of the previous week.” The man sued for wrongful termination, a jury agreed with him and awarded him $450,000.
Reading the full story adds much-needed detail and context that a headline with its limited space cannot provide. Also, as someone who has been open about my struggles with anxiety and panic attacks, the ignorance and lack of empathy from the company’s office manager in this story infuriates me but that is a discussion for a later column.
The comment section on this story broke into two camps: the ones who attacked and belittled the man because they didn’t read the story and the ones who did read the story and rightfully criticized the TV station for writing a click bait headline.
Contrary to what some say, you cannot get the full story from a headline, and the journalist who wrote that didn’t intend for the entire story to be captured in the headline. If you don’t read the full story, you diminish that writer’s contribution to the discussion and you do yourself an injustice because you are not educated on what happened yet will act as though you are.
If you won’t read the full story for those around you, then at least do it for yourself. Studies have shown that reading on a regular basis improves focus, memory, empathy and communication skills. It can also reduce stress, improve mental health and even help you to live longer. Great things you now know because you read through this full column.
Something else you’ll want to read is our look at the 31st annual Orlando International Fringe Theatre Festival. Orlando Fringe is bringing 100 shows to this year’s festival, with 31 of them LGBTQ-themed, and it’s the in-depth focus of our latest issue. If you are new to the world of Orlando Fringe, we tell you how to Fringe, where to Fringe and give you some recommendations on what to Fringe.
