NBA and FIBA Basketball News Headlines: A Formality Analysis and Players’ Perspectives

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the formality of basketball news headlines and the attitudes of basketball players towards them. The researcher examined the use of language in headline writing by comparing the formality of English parts of speech in NBA and FIBA headlines. The methodology involved analyzing the frequency of parts of speech and calculating formality scores using Eriksson’s (2017) F-measure method. A comparison of word counts and parts of speech across headlines from both organizations was conducted to determine formality. Additionally, a questionnaire was administered to Thai basketball players, basketball news readers, and Thai basketball players familiar with the basic rules of the game. Participants were asked to choose their preferred news headlines and rate the interestingness of the headlines on a scale of one to five.

The findings revealed that nouns, prepositions, and verbs were the most frequently used parts of speech, while modifiers such as adjectives and adverbs were used less frequently. There was no significant difference in the average formality scores between NBA and FIBA headlines, although NBA headlines had a slightly higher formality score. In terms of preference and interestingness, NBA headlines received higher ratings despite the minimal difference in formality. In conclusion, while NBA headlines were more formal, this higher formality did not diminish their appeal. The results suggest that language use in headlines plays a crucial role in shaping reader interest, with NBA headlines attracting more attention and preference despite similar formality levels compared to FIBA.