Tijdschrift voor Communicatiewetenschap - Volume 50, Issue 2, 2022

Headlines that click. Influence of formulation features on selection of online headlines

Digitization and the emergence of new media have led to major changes in news production and consumption. The question of what grabs the public’s attention is more relevant than ever. Strategies used to arouse the interest of the news user include headline formulation. This research examined which features of a headline cause the news user to click. For this, 2028 online news headlines from the Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad which came from A/B tests were used. By means of a content analysis, the headlines were analyzed on discursively emphasizing news values (Elite, Proximity, Personalization, Consonance, Unusuality, Negativity, Impact and Superlativeness) and the use of Forward referencing. We have investigated to what extent the use of these stylistic features in a headline influences the number of clicks. The results of this study showed that the discursive construal of Elite, Unusuality, Negativity and Impact had a positive effect on the headline performance.

Crisis communication or communication crisis? Dysfunctional patterns during internal online discussions about the benefits affair

In 2019 it became clear that the Dutch tax authorities had wrongly reclaimed childcare benefits on a large scale, with major consequences for the parents involved. The benefits affair also meant a crisis for the tax authorities. Disruptive events in an organization can lead to what Karl Weick calls a ‘collapse of meaning’: a situation in which people no longer experience their (organizational) reality as logical, consistent and morally acceptable. In such a period people look for meaning, cohesion and identity. This study is about the role of narratives in an organization in dealing with an organizational crisis. We analyzed internal online narratives at the tax authorities about the allowance affair. Our analysis shows, among other things, how identity questions put other questions out of sight and how patterns in the interactions between administrators and employees reinforce certain dysfunctional narratives. Our findings show the importance of an active listening policy and the exemplary role that managers play in this.