Media Representations of Death (Analysis of Contemporary Slovenian Magazine Press)
Death is everywhere: we find it in cartoons, documentaries and music, on the Internet. One encounters death literally on every step. As such, we find it fascinating and this fascination makes us stop and look at a traffic accident, watch forensic TV series or visit the Auschwitz concentration camp. So how come we continue to associate death with taboos? It is a well-known fact that nowadays we associate death with something bad and unsettling. Where do such feelings spring from? I have found that the media are almost the only source of information on death for us. Even though they have been slowly pushing the issue to the fore, one needs to be aware the media report on death in a rather distant manner. Their reporting is only partially true: the presented images of death are not realistic, but most of all, the aspect of natural death is missing. Most media report on tragic events, murders and accidents. Precisely because such reporting is incomplete, shrouded in mystery and devoid of realistic images, we still have a negative attitude towards death. In tabloids, on finds shocking stories of death, accompanied with photographs from the scene of the accident, though thankfully the act of killing is never depicted. The analysed medical journal Medicinski razgledi is dominated by a discourse warning that death should be prevented and kept as far as possible from people, since death is understood as a decline. I have also found out that there is a significant shortage of articles on death in the sociological journal Družboslovne razprave, although the ones covering the issue of death present it in a realistic way. However, it is precisely this shortage, the obscured photographs and unrealistic reporting that perpetuates the taboo of death and the negative attitude towards dying in modern times. Similarly, reporting in the newspapers Slovenske novice and Nedeljski dnevnik is negativistic, unrealistic and shrouded in secrecy.
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