Spelling is also affected by the headline. The city of Cleve land, Ohio , named in honor of Moses Cleaveland, it is said varies
in spelling from
the name of its chief founder owing to the
exigencies of the headline of the first newspaper printed there.65 The net effect of the headline as it appears to a prominent journalist is well stated by Catling in saying: “ The professor of journalism who periodically tells us all about newspapers , has failed to notice a comparatively modern and a very important feature of the newspaper, namely , the headlines.
This is a department of the paper which has steadily conquered times inadequately — recognises . It often happens that the ingenious artist in this department is really editing the paper.
He can convey an impression which the writers of ponderous leaders are endeavouring to avoid . He can create a doubt or
awaken suspicion by a single artfully -chosen word, or sow broad cast an opinion which it may take columns of writing to show is unfounded . Suggestions that are buried in
the body of the
articles may attract no attention, but the flaming headline takes the eye at once, and its diagnosis of the matter which it criticises may be very wide of the mark without the average
reader applying any correction. The headline largely regulates
the emphasis that is given to the report of current events. Small matters in this way may be magnified and mere conjectures invested with nearly the dignity of facts .” 68
Headlines , as regards their content, need not concern the
historian since they serve merely as “ bulletins giving the sub stance of the articles to which they are attached ,” 67 and he naturally passes on to the articles below them . He need not
question their guarantees of accuracy and truthfulness of im pression , — they are intended for the hurried reader rather than for the student, they are used by the press of large cities for the benefit of commuters, and by the newspapers of small cities
anxious to emulate the metropolitan press . But inasmuch as " headlines,” in the opinion of an authority 65 Rufus King, Ohio, p. 228. 66 Thomas Catling, My Life's Pilgrimage, p . 362. But Catling has also failed to notice that in American schools of jour nalism the construction of the headline receives much attention from the professor of journalism .
67 W . G . Bleyer, Newspaper Writing and Editing, p . 271.
