Learn Farsi: بعد از اینکه حادثه رخ داد، رسانه تیتر را منتشر کرد. - After the incident occurred, the media published the headline.

While you can use the Past Perfect (رخ داده بود - had occurred) for an action that happened before another past action, Farsi often just uses the Simple Past for both verbs when narrating a clear sequence of events. Because بعد از اینکه clearly tells us the order, the Simple Past (رخ داد) sounds completely natural here.

Why is را added after تیتر?

را is the definite direct object marker. Because the media didn't just publish any headline, but the specific headline related to the incident, it is a definite object. Therefore, تیتر (headline) must be followed by را.

In English, 'media' is often treated as plural. Is رسانه singular or plural in this sentence?

In this sentence, رسانه is grammatically singular, which is why the verb منتشر کرد is conjugated in the third-person singular. If you wanted to talk about multiple media outlets, you would use the plural رسانه‌ها, which would take the plural verb منتشر کردند.

I noticed the verbs رخ داد and منتشر کرد are both two words. How do they work?

These are compound verbs, which pair a noun or adjective with a 'light verb' that takes all the grammatical changes. رخ دادن (to occur) uses the light verb دادن (to give), and منتشر کردن (to publish) uses (to do). Notice that only the light verbs ( and ) are conjugated in the past tense.