Under the Metro section of the Boston Globe, the article entitled “Woman dies after being dragged by vehicle in Dorchester” begins with a solid lead: “A Dorchester woman has died after she was caught in the door of an SUV and dragged hundreds of feet early Sunday morning following an altercation on Massachusetts Avenue, police say”. Here, the reader knows exactly what they are getting into at the beginning of the story as journalist Maddie Kilgannon addresses the central point of the article.
The journalist goes on to address exactly who was found dead in Dorchester in the body of the story. Though she addresses the “whom” in the lead, she intentionally keeps it vague by saying “a Dorchester woman” rather than a specific name, which is a good journalistic tactic. The reporter continues with details of the woman, Cusandra Webb’s death. She is straightforward in her storytelling and gets right to the point in the most objective way possible. The journalist sequences the events that led up to and took place after Webb’s death: “Webb was than hit by a taxi, police said. She was taken to Boston Medical Center,”.
The story itself is very vague and short, as the journalist was clearly not able to get much information on the situation other than the sequence of events that led up to and took place after Webb’s death. The only source the reporter was able to talk to in the case of this story was the police. She never directly uses quotes and only paraphrases what the police said to her. In general, the story would be stronger if the journalist used more direct quotes from the police as well as some other sources. However, keeping in mind the touchy topic of the story and the short amount of time the journalist had to write the story, it is understandable that the reporter was not able to obtain a diversity of sources with solid quotes.
Journalism by Olivia Oriaku 