Saturday, April 4, 2009

Crime Levels Down

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-crime-down1-2009apr01,0,1555647.story

I thought the lead for this story was put together well. It is simple, to the point, and factual. I seem to like leads like that the best.
It was nice to read a story that emphasized a hopeful aspect of crime in LA rather than another melancholy article. I felt that the reporters - Rubin and Blankstein - paid a good homage to Chief Bratton's success in driving down crime without becoming a profile piece.
Usually when a reporter jumps to topics different from their lead or headline, I feel like the piece is unfocused, but the reporters were able to incorporate the crime statistics of other regions without creating that feeling.
I thought the use of graphics was nice, but I felt that they were small and not extremely relevant to the piece.
Overall, it was very nice to see a positive aspect of the crime world in LA and its good to know that despite a recession, people still have some sense about them.

3 comments:

  1. I agree that this article managed its two-pronged approach (in terms of timeliness) well. The first part of the news was obviously that crime rates are down. The second part of the news was that police are continuing to be effective and keep crime rates down even at a time when they should be rising. This article is a good representation of how all different beats are trying to tie in the current economy to their stories. I've seen that in the health articles that I'm reading, too.

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  2. I can't say I agree with you on those graphics. The story discusses crime rate drops in a number of categories. The graphics show visual representations of those drops. How are they not relevant?

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  3. I must say I agree with Justin about the graphics. Although they not be esthetically appealing they are, in my opinion, relevant to the content of the article.

    On another note, in regards to your comment about liking ledes that go straight to the point...are you open to more feature-y ledes for articles that call for ledes of that type?

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