Find one (1) headline you recently encountered that you felt was effective.

a) Provide the exact headline

“Here’s What Each Of The Men’s Hockey Players Who Skipped The State Of The Union Had To Say About Turning Down The Invite And *That* Phone Call”

b) Explain why it resonated with you

I chose to read this article because I’ve been hearing a lot of controversy regarding the US hockey olympics and have heard that some didn’t meet with Trump and didn’t go on the call. I have seen more videos from the women hockey team and what they said about the situation but nothing about the men’s team, therefore, when I saw this it grabbed my attention and I was wondering if they had the same stance as the women. The headline was not straightforward but it teased opinions and reactions with a backstory that wasn’t immediately explained or spoiled in the headline. That made me want to read the article to find the missing information and see if my suspicions were true. 

c) Tie your explanation directly to specific headline elements discussed in class

Curiosity: the headline didn’t reveal the details, it said “Here’s what they had to say” and it highlighted the phone call without really saying what it’s about. I think someone would have had to have some context before they read about this article because it’s kind of hard to know what it means if they weren’t aware of the situation. This headline created a curiosity gap to motivate readers to click because they’re brains will naturally want to know the reason either because they had some assumptions prior to reading and wanted to confirm, like me, or just out of pure curiosity. 

Relevance and social interest: this article references a major political event and big current sports such as hockey. This combination matches the headline idea and signal value to readers who are interested in hearing about this topic and know that the content matters to them.

Clarity: the headline is pretty clear on what the article will be about, which is the men’s hockey team but it also adds an intriguing balance by hinting at drama with “that phone call”. It aligns with the concept that headlines should be easy to read and understand but still include a hook that intrigues the reader.