I got an interesting email at work yesterday and I would love to get your feedback on it. A mum wanted me to unsubscribe her from the site “because of the headings of late – ‘I only took my eyes off him for a few minutes’ and ‘How do you tell your child he’ll die at 20 years old’ (I’ve written them here from memory so might not be exact headings).
“I don’t want these to be the headlines that I’m reading. I have 2 young boys at home and I’m scared to death about what’s out there in the big, bad world already and what could happen at any point in time. I know bad things happen.
“But, there’s enough fearmongering in the world – I don’t need to read about it here too.”
So I wrote back and said: “Thank you for your email. I am sorry you don’t like the headlines. However, ‘How do you tell your child he’ll die at 20 years old’ is about a syndrome that needs donations so that it can be cured. The mum is trying to create awareness.
“”I only took my eyes off him for a second’ it’s about a mum in Centennial Park whose son was almost abducted. Police are urging parents to be on the lookout for stranger danger – another issue we felt important to tell the iVillage readers about.”
And I asked her: “Are you saying you would prefer us to use headlines like ‘My son has an uncurable syndrome’? Or that you don’t want us to feature the stories at all?”
She replied: “It’s the headings for me that’s a turn off. Perhaps they could be re-worded, but then they might not have the same impact with other readers – always a catch 22.
“With 2 small children (boys) I’m constantly worried about them already – in all sorts of ways. I guess it was the specific wording. It’s not a big deal, just how I feel.”
And it’s got me wondering … how do YOU feel. Would you prefer not to read stories like that? Would you prefer not to know?
Be totally honest with me – would you be drawn to read the story as much if the heading was more low-key?
Advice please!
housegoeshome 
I’m with her. We are bombarded with so much of this on all sites these days and each item is trying to out-horrify the next. I open my facebook to pics every day asking to like a page to support cancer or some other disease or condition and I am over it. Most of the warnings are crap on places like facebook and in the emails you receive so I know that I tend to skim over media reports as well. When I do read them I do my own research before I believe them anyway!
I am much more likely to read an article that sparks my interest with information than with sensationalism.
I’m not sure about iVillage but certainly Mamamia has received criticism in the past for “click bait” headlines. There is certainly a risk with too much creativity in a headline that you will disappoint the reader when they do click through to read the article. However, in the online world with so many blogs, websites, social media competing for attention you have to do something to get the reader to move on to actually look at what you have created. Low-key headlines are probably going to struggle in this busy world.
In terms of reading about stories relating to children and illness, danger etc. Certainly I think you can be disturbed by pieces which remind you of your own children and the risks they face. I do find myself frequently having to “step away” from the computer because there are so many emotional, disturbing, frightening stories that you get to a point where you are overwhelmed by all the sadness in the world.
However, I don’t believe that means stories shouldn’t be told.The online world provides a space for new voices to give a unique insight into some of the struggles of the modern world and I think that is important.
This is a really interesting post Alana, and got me thinking… The way I look at it is that we live in a tabloid kind of a world, where we are bombarded day and night by news, some of it really shocking. In the cases you describe, you are raising awareness of issues that are of concern to parents and that might not have the desired impact if they were “low-key”. The thing is, we are pretty desensitised to bad news and as a result, headlines generally have become even more emotive. Headlines are by very nature, sensational – and often exaggerate to gain interest. After all, they’re there to attract attention (and sell papers) !! I do think they’re a necessary part of the process of being heard/read and to raise awareness and much needed funds. A toned down heading would be passed over in an instant, as time is precious and no one would be hooked into the article if it were bland. As long as the wording isn’t offensive or in bad taste (and I don’t think yours were) it’s just part of the news game 🙂
U asked me to b honest… well, honestly, this woman really needs to get in the real world, or remove her head from the sand… life isnt all roses… does she not watch the news, or read the papers??
As a journalist, I’m all about the catchy headlines, however I do understand it can sometimes be a little too confronting for some people. As they say, ignorance is bliss! As some of your previous comments point out though, in today’s social media world there is an overload of information you need to grab readers attention to get them to click on your story. I don’t think there was anything wrong with the two headlines you’ve quoted. They bring attention to real events and are stories that need to be told. 🙂
I agree that these are important issues. Charity fundraising is SO hard for some organisations. There is so much competition for donor dollars – and if they spend money on advertising they get criticised. So, I can certainly see the merits in an attention-seeking headline. Having said that, yes I do find shock headlines off-putting. I don’t find them offensive, mind you, but I feel like my intray/newsfeed are swamped by ‘click bait’ headlines (as Janine said) – I actually expect the story to be less interesting than the headline suggests in most cases. Once again to agree with Janine, I know friends of mine are turning away from Mamamia because of all those headlines that say ‘Can you believe this woman did this??’ I personally like The Hoopla as a model for headlines – fairly informative/straightforward – but perhaps their target readership is different from iVillage? I liked Claire Gallagher’s iVillage article – and its headline – today.
I can understand the mum’s fear of anything happening to her kids, we all live that, but all u are doing is striking at the heart of matters in yr headlines. Wld that mum have read it if you had said we need to raise money for incurable disease? Possibly not because ‘in curable disease’ might be taboo too, or,perhaps she ,it have thought ‘doesn’t relate to me’. It appears u just strike at the chord of the shared human condition and I don’t think that should be reduced, it’s empathy is built.
Ps i write terrible comments full of typos … now perhaps should be deleted, not yr headlines.
I also get really tired and bored of the ‘click bait’ headlines because it is everywhere. The television, the radio, the newspapers and the internet. I think you can get away with one or two but after that it gets overkill for all the reasons everyone so eloquently explained before me.
I can also simpathize with the woman. When crazy no 3 child (a boy) was 17mths it felt like everyday I read a headline of a child his age in various forms of injury to death. In particular there were a lot of drownings and it was summer. It kept me vigilant because he was so unaware of his mortality and very capable of being the next victim in one of those stories. It was exhausting at time being in charge my daughter was 10 times more sensible than her brothers when she was the same age.
I am at the stage in my life where I just don’t want anything in my head that I don’t want to be there. This includes news stories about the abuse of children and cruelty to animals. I was really sensitive just after my children were born….everything made me cry…I like to know what is happening but I just have to be careful because a really sad or shocking piece can depress me for a few hours. I think headlines give a warning. I really hate reading a book where you get a shock when a child dies or something terribly unexpected happens. What I really love in people’s blogs are funny, real, personal and uplifting stories about everyday life from mums..and dads..struggling with kids, work, the mortgage, school and everything else…..some of them are really beautiful.
Thanks everyone for the advice – am processing …