Friday, February 4, 2011

More Ledes -- Is The Name Necessary . . .

. . . in the lede?

I'm talking about the wedding day crash involving Scott Forsythe.

Let's think about when to use -- or not use -- names in ledes.

It's okay to use names in a lede if the name is someone the community at large is likely to know, or if the name is that of an authority figure who commits news simply by doing or saying anything, or if a lede is anecdotal in nature and attempts to humanize the subject immediately.

A specific name is not necessary in the lede if the reader isn't likely to recognize the name or if the name is less significant than a generic identifier -- e.g., 22-year-old local man -- with the name being detailed in a latter reference. Essentially, does the name matter in understanding the context of this story?

In this instance, some of you used the name and some of you did not. Why did you do what you did? What do you think you should have done?

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