Casting Of Headline

Of late, I noticed a slant in the casting of news headline by a section of the Nigerian media. This is especially so when it is bad news.

A case in hand was the story of the alleged murder of a wife by her husband in Anambra state.

May the Lord have mercy on the accursed!
In a video that has since gone viral on the net the suspect was seen making spirited effort to extricate himself from a slap of culpability. He may or may not go free. This is beside the point.

The meat of this post is how the writers of the story chose to cast the headline.

"ANAMBRA MAN ALLEGEDLY KILLS WIFE, LOCKS UP SELF WITH CORPSE"

But for the insidious effect it has on the perception of a people, it merits no attention. After all there is nothing to be said in defense of crime however the nature. Violent deaths of the nature the Anambra man committed have been prevalent and I can't recall reading the state of the suspect being emblazoned as headline. There have been varying degrees of domestic violence that involved suspects from states across Nigeria. I can't remember seeing, for example, the state of a suspect on the headline of the story. You get that while reading the body of the news.

Conversely, I am yet to read where award- winning Anambra people who made marks on the international scene were reported as Anambra people and not as Nigerians or Ndigbo.

The news headline by the Punch newspaper was cast with mischief. This level of bias can be tolerated in online publications where the writers can take liberty with propriety but not the print media. The level of bias sucks, please.