Who was chasing and who was captured on CCTV?

What does this headline, Sleuths in trail of men caught on Boston video, in The Times of India (April 19, 2013), tell you?

For one, it could mean the detectives who were going after the Boston bombers were caught on camera. Or, the sleuths were chasing the bombers whose images were captured by the videos by CCTV in the area. Going by the news item of which it was the headline, the second is correct.

The headline and the text of the news item can be read here.

News headlines in print are difficult to write for they have to explain the news in brief and also attract attention of the reader. They have to be concise and pack a lot.

J-school students and rookies who write news are often told that the headline is, generally, the summing up of the first paragraph which in professional jargon is a 'lead' or 'lede', the latter in vogue in the newsrooms in the USA. The lead or lede has to be a summing up of the entire news item.

Space available for the headline, depending on the importance of the item relative to others on the page and also its architecture, forces the headline writer to compress it as much as possible and yet be informative but could lead, as it has in this case, to confusion. It could even be hilarious.

During my college days, the equivalent of today's junior college was Intermediate and popularly, Inter. When new textbooks were introduced for these courses, the Deccan Chronicle, then confined only to the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad came out with a gem: New textbooks for Intercourse. The space for the headline did not leave room for it to be in two words!

Any examples you would like to share?

'Apropos' the 'storm'

Did Jorge Heine in his The death of  poet in The Hindu need to start off 'Apropos of' when apropos is a preposition which actually means with respect to? Or Concerning.

Earlier, a headline in the same newspaper need not have used the 'into' - it was Protesters storm into Presidency University, attack students. A mob, whether of the CPM or the TMC variety, just storm.

Comments are invited.

On and off camera

While telecasting its sting on sale of medical seats, CNN-IBN kept flashing the statement in its 9 pm news slot that 'doctors said on camera'. It should have been 'doctors caught on camera'. Those who say anything 'on camera' are doing so with full knowledge of the camera being on. The anchor was Rajdeep Sardesai.

The missing 'erstwhile'

This blog's intent is to look at the use or misuse of words and expressions in journalism but here is an exception. It is about non-use of a word - erstwhile. And the confusion it causes.

The Hindu's news item on April 1, 2013 failed to use 'erstwhile' when talking about the former ruler of Bastar giving the impression that in a democratic republic which India is, royalty with titles exist. The only place where its use was not required - and not used - is in the fourth paragraph because the report recalls the past when India did have kings.

It is another matter that people in several regions, including cities like Jaipur, do look at the former rulers as royalty and refer to them as His/Her Highness but for a newspaper to treat them as royalty is ill-advised.

The use of 'Bastars' to identify the people who belong to a region is interesting.

All comments are welcome.