Fisham, J. M. Death makes the news. How the media censor and display the dead. Nova Iorque

New York University Press, 278 páginas

Abstract

Jessica M. Fishman’s book reflects her interdisciplinary practice: she is a researcher at the Perelman School of Medicine and the Annenberg School for Communication, both at the University of Pennsylvania, and her background in social psychology makes her perspective on the media particularly integrative and innovative. In this case, the aim is to understand the ecology of journalistic representation of death—that is, to reflect on the dynamics of death as both a social phenomenon and an editorial routine. The pictorial representation of death reflects political and professional values that turn it into one of journalism’s most controversial practices. It is also one of the least understood, as the book unveils surprising assumptions that challenge conventional wisdom. For instance, despite the unquestionable news value of death, images of dead bodies are not common in newspapers and are, in fact, almost always preceded by cautious decision-making. The criteria that lead to the selection—and even overvaluation—of certain images and the discarding of others remain ambiguous.