My headline is the same as one I read this morning. Seeing it, I assumed that the actor would be someone most Americans would know, otherwise why would it be newsworthy? But like so many Comcast teasers, it was irrelevent, at least to me. It seems that a Filipino actor named Kirk Abella doing a scene with a plastic gun was shot (in the back) by a watchman who (for no good reason) thought he was a real criminal. Of course, a death like this is tragic, but Comcast's headline wanted to suggest that it was a death we would mourn in some way: an actor whose name we knew. Though I subscribe to Comcast and am happy enough with their service, I must admit I find the company less than consumer friendly, especially in cases like this because you have to watch some boring commercial to get to a video which is often far less interesting than the teaser suggests.
Note: Days later the Comcast teaser headline was Halle Berry's Bizarre Makeover. This come-on was supposed to make you think that Ms. Berry had had some plastic surgery that was less than successful. The story was merely about the her face-changing makeup in a new film. In other words, another non-story.
How would you rewrite the "Actor Dead" headline?
ReplyDeleteEasy. Filipino Actor Killed in Tragic Mistake.
ReplyDeleteI don't see the difference. There could be famous Filipino actors whom people care about (not that I can think of one). But bottom line, I think any journalism teacher would say that "actor" alone suffices, since headline writers are taught to use a minimum of words.
ReplyDelete