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The Meaning of Headlines: 'angling for success' - business



In the Society page of the online Georgian Journal on July 25, 2015, the headline announced, ‘Angling for success – A South African hunter on prospects of fish farming in Georgia.’ What does ‘angling for success’ mean?

Angling is ‘the sport or pastime of fishing with a rod and line’ according to Oxford Dictionaries online. So ‘angling for success’ means ‘fishing for success’ – which is the headline introduction into the topic of the article: fish farming in Georgia.

The article explains that Georgia is a country ‘that has a great interest in attracting foreign investment’ which is also a good first sentence – it hints at business. Then the author mentions that he met a South African hunter who was also a keen fisherman. That reminds me of another article I was reading about fishing in Morocco, where the gender neutral term for fisherman or fisherwoman was ‘fisher’ – i.e. The fisher caught three trout.’

In the Georgian Journal the author’s acquaintance, the South African hunter, managed a fish farm in Georgia, not far from Sagarejo. The South African company, Safco Ltd., is one of the biggest carp farms in Georgia, with the potential for raising trout and other fish. It’s aiming to be profitable in the next one to two years, to make it a commercial fishing destination.

‘Fishing for success’ does not mean that someone is currently successful – it means that someone is ‘looking’ for success, ‘trying to catch’ success – as one would try to catch a fish. Sometimes you are lucky and catch fish, and mostly, like me, you don’t catch any fish. So the headline is hinting that the South African farmer is trying to find success in the fish farming sector in Georgia – and this is mentioned in the remaining part of the headline, ‘prospects of fish farming.’ Prospects means, according to the Oxford Dictionary, ‘the possibility or likelihood of some future event occurring’ – in this case, success.

Scorecard for the Georgian Journal headline is 100% - the article directly corresponds to the headline. The headline is catchy (literally), pertinent, related and relevant to fishing, and it has two clever words that hint at future success – ‘angling’ and ‘prospects’ – all in the one headline! 





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