Proposed Topic: Death on TV and social media. How death is explored more and the subject is accessible and advertised to the audience.
Berents, H. (2019). Apprehending the “telegenic dead”: considering images of dead children in global politics. International Political Sociology, 13(2), 145–160. Web.
This study examines how power dynamics affect whether children’s deaths and bodies are more prominent in international politics than others. The article also discusses the ethics of utilizing photographs of dead bodies for political goals and the politics of sharing such images (Berents, 2019). This article is helpful given the existing discussion over the growing accessibility and advertising of death on TV and social media.
Carmichael, V., & Whitley, R. (2019). Media coverage of Robin Williams’ suicide in the United States: A contributor to contagion?Plos One, 14(5), e0216543. Web.
The media’s portrayal of suicide and death is discussed by Carmichael & Whitley (2019), with particular reference to American newspapers’ coverage of Robin Williams’ suicide. The study revealed that while U.S. newspapers generally followed guidelines for reporting on suicide, several areas still needed improvement, such as refraining from giving specific details about the suicide method (Carmichael & Whitley, 2019). The article relates to the topic as it demonstrates how suicide rates and mental health can be affected by the media’s portrayal of death. In particular, the suicide contagion, or an upsurge in suicides after a high-profile death, can be attributed to the sensationalized coverage of celebrity deaths.
Dar-Nimrod, I. (2012). Viewing death on television increases the appeal of advertised products. Journal of Social Psychology, 152(2), 199–211. Web.
The article analyses the connection between the appeal of advertised goods and how death is portrayed on television. In two studies, participants saw television program clips—some of which included grisly death scenes—and were then asked to rate certain products’ desirable (Dar-Nimrod, 2012). The article pertains to the subject by highlighting how the topic is investigated and promoted to audiences. The way in which death is portrayed on television can directly affect consumer behavior, proving that it is frequently utilized in advertising.
Fratini, A., & Hemer, S. R. (2020). Broadcasting your death through livestreaming: Understanding cybersuicide through concepts of performance. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry, 44(4), 524–543. Web.
This study centers the concept of cybersuicide, namely suicide that is livestreamed online. In order to illuminate the performer’s role in livestream suicides and the audience’s crucial responsibilities in social practice, the authors draw on anthropological conceptions of performance from dramaturgy (Fratini & Hemer, 2020). The piece is pertinent to the discussion of death on TV and social media, examining how death is investigated and promoted to audiences through live-streamed suicides online. Suicide activities can be broadcast online, reaching a population that is distributed throughout the globe and exposing them as participants in a cybersuicide.
Kania-Lundholm, M. (2019). Digital mourning labor: Corporate use of dead celebrities on social media. In T. Holmberg, A. Jonsson, & F. Palm (Eds.), Death matters (pp. 177–197). Springer. Web.
The article focuses on how companies use social media to market after a celebrity dies. The text also explores how social media platforms help with “digital mourning” (Kania-Lundholm, 2019, p. 178) and commemoration, as well as social media users’ role in this process. The text is related to the topic, examining how death, especially regarding celebrities, is becoming more visible and advertised to the audience through social media. Social media has aided in the commodity of death for profit and the extension of death and sorrow from private to public areas.