Deadmen Don’t Give Names: Editing a Killer’s Identity

Well, I got through my last post without writing his name once, but the name of Virginia Tech mass murder, Seung-Hui Cho, brings up an interesting diversity and editing issue.
There are two helpful articles that cronicle the struggle to give the killer’s name properly. One is on Slate, and the other is on Gawker.com, a media gossip site. I will include links to all of the sources in this entry below.
In the initial coverage of the killer, several publications, including the New York Times and the Washington Post, identified him as Cho Seung-Hui. On the “Times Topics” entry on Virginia Tech, there are articles from April 17 and 18, 2007 that put the killer’s surname in front. According to Slate, it was the form given out by the police. It is also traditional in Cho’s native South Korea to list the surname first. However, in Times articles starting from April 21, the surname goes to the back. The Washington Post wrote a long editor’s note acknowledging their switching of the order, putting “Cho” last. They changed the order after learning Cho had signed forms using the Americanized version. The Slate article also stated that it was an ethnic issue. “Some Korean-Americans felt media groups were playing up Cho's foreign-ness, according to the Asian American Journalists Association, which advised reporters to use the American order.”
The Post also wrote in their editor’s note that they would not be using the hyphen in his name because it was against their style.
The AP Stylebook differentiates use of the hyphens among North and South Korean names: “North Korean names are generally three separate words, each starting with a capital letter: Kim Jong Il. South Korean names are three words with the second two names hyphenated and a lowercase letter after the hyphen: Kim Young-sam.”
Usually, the best policy is to ask the person how their name should be written, but this is an example of how difficult it can be to name a dead person.

Gawker.com article
http://gawker.com/news/cho-seung_hui/nations-papers-react-to-getting-everything-about-va-tech-shooter-completely-backwards-254262.php

Slate article
http://www.slate.com/id/2164659/

Times Topics on Virginia Tech
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/v/virginia_polytechnic_institute_and_state_university/index.html.

Washington Post editor’s note
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/20/AR2007042002288.html?nav=hcmodule