How do news headlines manipulate readers without them even knowing?

Olivia Berry
LING 4100 - Perspectives on Language
Advisor: Zygmunt Frajzyngier
LURA 2021

    The opening sentence for this post, on its own, is an example of the smuggling of a presupposition into a headline to catch a reader’s eye, in hopes that they click on the link. The question in this sentence is not whether the headlines are manipulating people, but how this is happening, presupposing that the manipulation is already regarded as happening. However, this presupposition, unlike the examples to come, is testable for truth. Testability for truth is about how supported the statement is; it is the difference between information that is backed up with evidence, and information that comes from opinion without proof of sources.

    Presuppositions occur in all types of conversations and daily language use without any intent of manipulation. If someone were to ask, “may I have another cookie?” The question presupposes that the asker had already had at least one cookie. The speaker is in no way trying to convince the other person of anything by using a presupposition. In many headlines, though, presuppositions are regularly manipulative. These headlines regularly smuggle in presuppositions through the use of “wh” words, such as who, what, when, where, why, and how. To research the use of presuppositions in headlines, I have collected several headlines from larger news websites, such as CNN.com, foxnews.com, news.yahoo.com, and nytimes.com.

    Political headlines, specifically from news sources that take an overt political stance, tend to try to persuade the reader to believe, to some extent, that their political party is correct and others are not. Fox News, for example, had several headlines that smuggled political information through “wh” words. One example is, “Liz Peek: Obama’s warning about Biden - this is why so many Americans are worried about the president-elect.” This sentence is very manipulative, not only because it smuggles in information that is not necessarily true, but also because the use of the word ‘worried’ makes it not directly testable for truth, as one could not easily test a nation for being ‘worried.’ The question in this headline is not whether Americans are worried about Joe Biden being elected president, but why they are nervous. This presupposes that Americans are nervous, and the “actual” news is why they are nervous. That is why this headline could manipulate many people into believing that the president-elect belonging to a political party other than their own is bad for the job.

    In entertainment, most headlines attempt to entice the reader to click on the article by making the reader feel as though they are out of the loop about major situations. Of the examples in entertainment that I found, there is one from the New York Times that stuck out to me: “How Francis Ford Coppola got pulled back in to make ‘The Godfather, Coda.’” This headline presupposes that Francis Ford Coppola had to be pulled back in to make the next movie, which implies that he did not want to make the next movie. This leaves readers feeling left out, as though it is already a given that Coppola did not want to make The Godfather, Coda, and also curious about why he would not want to come back, and then on top of that, how whoever managed to get him “back in” actually did it.

    In conclusion, the smuggling of presuppositions into headlines using “wh” words is regularly manipulative and is used to evoke strong emotions from the readers. These headlines tend to be presented as though the main point of the news is not that this accusation, declaration, or just general statement is true, but why this situation is happening, or how, or when, because the information given is supposedly already regarded as true. This is in hopes that the reader will look right past it, and the presupposed information is phrased in a way that makes it difficult to always notice unless it is being looked for. 

Citation

Peek, L. (2020, November 29). Liz peek: OBAMA'S warning about biden – This is why so many Americans are worried about the president-elect. Retrieved from https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/obama-warning-biden-americans-worried-liz-peek
Itzkoff, D. (2020, December 02). How Francis Ford COPPOLA got pulled back in to make 'the Godfather, Coda'. Retrieved April 08, 2021, from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/02/movies/godfather-coda-francis-ford-coppola.html