II. The Features of English News Headlines

2.1 An Overview of English News Headlines
As is discussed that news headline is meaningful for a news report, we should get to know the definition and function of news headline.
2.1.1 Definition of News Headlines
The concept of “a news headline” has been defined by numerous journalists and scholars. Here is an example, Bruce H. Westley, in his News Editing wrote “a headline is any line or collection of lines of display type that precedes a story to introduce or summarize it” And authoritative English dictionary defines a headline as follows: “The heading printed in large letters above a story in a newspaper ”Another enduring definition of news headline is offered by Longman Dictionary of the English Language, which goes “a head of a newspaper story or article, usually printed in large type and devised to summarize the story or article that follows”.
2.2.1 Function of News Headlines
In summary, The English news headlines play a variety of roles, the role can be pided into the following  categories: summarizing of news, attracting readers’ eyeball, to facelift the physical appearance of a newspaper. 英语新闻标题的特征及其翻译(2):http://www.youerw.com/yingyu/lunwen_39136.html