A Pragmatic Analysis of the Selected English and Croatian Online Newspapers' Headlines

Since online newspapers began ‘battling’ for clicks, it seems there has been a surge of clickbait and other sensationalist headlines that can annoy and deter readers. In this thesis, headlines from the selected British and Croatian newspapers are analyzed in order to compare quality newspapers with tabloid newspapers, as well as two different sections of the news within the same newspapers – regular and lifestyle news sections, with regards to the informative and eye-catching elements used. Traditionally, quality newspapers are expected to have headlines which are more informative and representative of the article they precede, while tabloids are expected to have more sensationalist elements in their headlines. While it can sometimes seem that when it comes to online newspapers, sensationalist headlines are everywhere, random headlines from the selected newspapers, British The Guardian and The Sun, and Croatian Telegram and 24 sata are analyzed in this paper with regards to their informative and eye-catching functionality degrees, in order to observe which elements are more present in quality newspapers – The Guardian and Telegram, and which in tabloid newspapers - The Sun and 24 sata. Based on the analysis of the selected newspapers, it seems that both quality and tabloid newspapers combine informative and eye-catching aspects in order to deliver headlines that are to various degrees both informative and attractive to readers. However, some differences still exist, as the quality newspapers give more attention to the informative aspects of the headlines, and the tabloid newspapers tend to have more sensationalist or simpler elements in their headlines. Additionally, headlines from the selected British and Croatian newspapers are compared with regards to the differences in the eye-catching elements used, the main difference being the extensive use of puns in both of the selected British newspapers when compared to the selected Croatian newspapers