Betteridge's Law of Headlines

I ran across an interesting item the other day in an article from Mental Floss titled, Ten Rules, Laws, and Theorems You Should Know. I'd already heard of some of the listed rules/laws/theorems, particularly Godwin's Law*, about which I've written before, but one of them was particularly appropriate to our current obsession with news, both real and "fake"**.

Betteridge's Law of Headlines simply states that, "Any headline which ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no," and the article goes on to explain that,

"If the answer is yes, then the headline would simply make that declaration. A question in a headline implies that either (1) The writer doesn't have enough facts to be sure of the answer, (2) The question makes the available information more sensational, or (3) The writer is honestly just asking for the reader’s input."

I think that Betteridge's Law of Headlines applies directly to our overwrought 24-hour news cycle, and the need to draw in readers/listeners/watchers by any means necessary so that advertising revenues can be kept up. A headline framed as a question implies that there is more to the story, and that tantalizing details are coming if one reads on ... which is almost never the case***.

There is also an academic version of Betteridge's Law of Headlines which applies to scholarly articles. It's called Hinchcliffe's Law (more properly, perhaps, Hinchcliffe's Paradox^†), and you can read all about it here.

Don't thank me for bringing this to your attention ... it's all part of my ongoing effort to help you cope with the bizarre world of alternative facts and blissful ignorance.

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo

* "As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1."

** For purposes of discussion, "fake news" can be defined as "news reporting that contradicts what the reader or listener is convinced is true."

*** In current slang, a "nothingburger."

† No, "paradox" does not mean "two waterfowl."

The Tower of Babel, 2017

One of the major stories of the past year has been the rise of "fake news" - authentic-sounding media reports that are not just "spun" to reflect a particular political point of view, but are created from nothing in order to smear an individual or further an otherwise unpopular agenda. Fake news is not the same as satire, and it plays very well to uneducated or credulous audiences too lazy to think beyond their preconceived ideas.

There's an interesting biblical quote that applies to the fake news problem. The book of Genesis tells, in chapter 11*, the story of how man tried to build a tower that would enable him to reach God.

The effort was facilitated by the fact that everyone spoke the same language, and so God decided on an elegant way to punish man's hubris ... He (She) scrambled their languages to make them mutually unintelligible, making it impossible for people to communicate and cooperate with each other.

So, here's the part that applies to the fake news plague -

"And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar." (Genesis 11:3)**

"And slime had they for mortar." I think that about sums it up.

Have a good day. Think critically when you're faced with fake news. Avoid the slime; rely on facts and reason. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo

* No, not the one dealing with bankruptcy.

** King James Version online - http://www.kingjamesbible.com/B01C011.htm