The Miscommunication of Story Headlines

As I was reading news headlines one in particular caught my eye: "Bishop bars Patrick Kennedy from Communion over abortion." Being a Catholic, I was surprised to hear that someone was banned from taking Communion. When I read further in the article though, I realized that the story did not really fit the headline. In fact Kennedy was not banned from taking Communion, but the bishop "respectfully asked" him to stop because of his strong support for abortion rights, something the Catholic church is against. In addition this advice was "pastoral and confidential" and the bishop did not expect Kennedy to bring this confidential conversation to the public.

This is only one example of the way the media can twist stories. The media twists these stories to try to make them more interesting so that people will read them. In this case the headline sounds controversial, and it is then more likely that people will read the story. The word abortion is also worked into the title, a big debate topic that many Americans have strong opinions about. These headlines also tell a lot about the majority of the population of America. People are most interested in controversies and scandals, and this is what the media tries to bring to them.