Why Do News Articles Contain People's Age?

Factual Questions
1

Certainly the criminal reports do. And it isn’t just for apprehension or recognition purposes, as they also include the age of guys who were already arrested. But they do it in other stories too. I guess I can see it in a business story (you might want to know how long the CEO has to go till retirement). But when they’re just quoting, say, some Mardi Gras reveler, why does it matter whether he’s 18, 23, or 42?

Interestingly, it seems to me that sports (one area in which you’d think it’d be of high relevance), the players’ ages are mentioned less in the sports pages than the names of civilians in straight news stories.

2

The general rule of thumb is that the age isn’t necessary information unless it’s somehow relevant to the story. Mentioning the age in a story about an 18-year-old college kid getting busted for underage drinking at Mardi Gras is relevant because the story is about someone who is underage. Ditto for a story about, say, a woman who graduates from college at the age of 90. These are instances where the age is of interest.

On the other hand, a story about a businessman or an athlete, age isn’t usually an issue, so it’s not mentioned.

Robin

3

In a very few characters, you’re given a significant additional piece of information to assist you in evaluating how to regard the person in question.

“Larry Fotzbotz, 15, was arrested for trespass at Glendale Cemetery…” means he may have done it on a dare. “Hector Munzbunz, 45, [and known to readers as the town drunk; there’s a reserved space in the lower left corner of the local news page every Saturday detailing his arrest for drunk and disorderly]…” doesn’t get that slack.

The age of a person commenting on Social Security reform may be quite relevant in evaluating their position. Likewise on re-implementing the draft.

Other examples might come easily to mind.

4

It’s a part of the identification process, used to make sure readers don’t mistake the accused with an innocent person who happens to have the same name.

How to identify people in news reporting has evolved over time. Well into the 1960s it was normal to report someone’s race. Another change has been to stop listing their exact address (1234 Main St.) and instead list only the street or block number (12xx block of Main Street.)

There would be no need to mention it in sports stories because a) the athlete is supposedly enough of a public figure that he/she’s easily identified and b) there’s no allegation of wrongdoing (although this isn’t true for ALL sports stories anymore.)

5

The ages of Mardi Gras revelers is somewhat relevant. It helps to identify people who are unfamiliar to the general public.

Generally, a newspaper will try to mention the age of any person who is appearing in the paper for the first time. Sports figures and politicians generally don’t get their ages mentioned unless it’s a profile type article.

6

Besides helping the reader to better understand the story, it would help distinguish between people with similar or identical names. That way, you could tell that the Larry Fotzbotz, 15, who allegedly vandalized the cemetery wasn’t the Larry Fotzbotz, 46, who runs Fotzbotz’s Bar, or that he was Pastor Fotzbotz’s son who everyone thinks is getting involved with the wrong crowd. Giving an address also helps distinguish between people with similar names, but again I think the main reason is to help readers understand the context of the story. If a person from a poor part of town is arrested for allegedly holding up a liquor store, it’s not terribly surprising. But if it’s someone from a rich neighborhood, it’s more unusual and interesting.

7

Interesting. Last week I saw a picture in the local paper of two people motorcycling on ice, where the caption read “Joe (7) and Harry(42) participating in the local ice motorcycling bla bla bla”.

I found that extremely odd until I realized the numbers referred to the racing number on the front of the bikes. :stuck_out_tongue:

8

I’ve noticed what the OP has. The Australian media certainly do it when a person is some dull age like 43 - it doesn’t have to be something relevant or important like 12 or 98. The only exception to this is in letters to the editor. These never have an age next to the correspondent’s name unless it is a rare example of a child’s letter being published, or a very elderly person who maybe writing an “I was there when…” letter.

As for general newspaper text though, it is a very common practice, and I think as much as anything, it is a style thing to help break up the article and avoid close repetition of the person’s name only a few words after a previous example.

Consider:
A motorist was arrested for high-range drink driving after police spotted his vehicle weaving onto the wrong side of the road in Sydney’s west today. Peter Sullivan returned a blood alcohol reading of 0.2, which is four times the legal limit. Peter Sullivan was charged at Burwood Police Station…

It doesn’t work as smoothly as:
A motorist was arrested for high-range drink driving after police spotted his vehicle weaving onto the wrong side of the road in Sydney’s west today. Peter Sullivan returned a blood alcohol reading of 0.2, which is four times the legal limit. Sullivan, 39, was charged at Burwood Police Station…

They often do it in specialty sections of the paper like sport or motoring, where they are talking about the same people and things day in and day out.

“Cricket Player X is making a good recovery from his elbow injury, his coach said today. The fast bowler is expected to play in next week’s test against England”.

Motoring articles really make me feel sorry for the jounalists, as the subject matter is so limited. In an article about a new model, you’ll see them mention the name, and then a sentence later it’ll be “this new addition to the stable” or “Detroit’s latest effort”.

It’s the same with the age thing. The papers will often have to resort to adding the person’s suburb or employement, but issuing this information slowly, one piece at a time.

9

I remember a really egregious example of a newspaper inappropriately listing an address when it ought not have.
It was some time around 1990, and a man was driving his car in Chapel Hill, NC when another unidentified person shot out his vehicle’s rear window.
The victim reported the crime to the Chapel Hill Police Department. The next day, the newspaper listed the victim’s whole home address in the story.
Dumb. Real dumb.