The importance of the headline is well-established in journalism. For readers, headlines and ledes are often the primary entry points to an article.
A new study from Temple University’s Fox School of Business found that how a story is told is what grabs readers’ attention and keeps them engaged. The design of the storytelling, the researchers believe, is key.
The researchers began with traditional and satirical news shared on social media by the same Indian publisher. They then used large language models to rewrite the stories — manipulating the narrative structure, emotional flow and reading complexity before testing the new versions with more than 500 participants.
