Scare-line

This article is about use of quotations and headlines to scare readers. For dismissive use of quotation marks, see Scare quotes.

A scare-line, scare-head, or scare headline is a word or phrase that is presented (often as a quotation and as a headline or other emphasized text, such as a pull quote) to scare the reader,[1] as part of a smear campaign against an opposing political candidate,[2] or to cause an estrangement or cause something to seem unfamiliar in a supernatural way.[3] The term scare quote is sometimes also used to refer to scare-lines that are direct quotations,[3] but more often refers today to use of dismissive quotation marks around a term to imply doubt, irony, or scorn.

  1. ^ Kaplan, Alice Yeager (1986). Reproductions of Banality: Fascism, Literature, and French Intellectual Life. Theory and History of Literature. Vol. 36. University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 9781452901497. Retrieved 25 January 2017.
  2. ^ McWilliams, Carey (1946), Southern California: An Island on the Land, p. 298, ISBN 9780879050078, retrieved 25 January 2017
  3. ^ a b Harries, Martin (2000). Scare Quotes from Shakespeare: Marx, Keynes, and the Language of Reenchantment. Stanford University Press. p. 6. ISBN 9780804736213. Retrieved 25 January 2017.