HON 410: Expressive Culture of Death: Digital Library Resources

Death is considered one of the most newsworthy events, but words do not tell the whole story. Pictures are also at the epicenter of journalism, and when photographers and editors illustrate fatalities, it often raises questions about how they distinguish between a "fit" and "unfit" image of death.

Death Makes the News is the story of this controversial news practice: picturing the dead. Jessica Fishman uncovers the surprising editorial and political forces that structure how the news and media cover death. The patterns are striking, overturning long-held assumptions about which deaths are newsworthy and raising fundamental questions about the role that news images play in our society.

The Times has recorded notable deaths from its beginnings (as The Daily Universal Register) in 1785, and by the middle of the 19th century obituaries were established as one of the glories of the paper. There was no attempt at comprehensive coverage, and nothing like the daily obituary page of modern times, but under the 36-year editorship of John Thadeus Delane (1841-77) the paper began to respond to the deaths of significant national and international figures in a style - and on a scale - that none of its rivals could match.

This book is the first its kind to offer an innovative examination of the intersecting influences, contexts, and challenges within the field of children's dark tourism.