Sociology

Death and dying have been some of the key themes dominating most of the American media literature. American mysteries, true crimes books and war novels are very popular to many readers. Dying and death have been featured even in childrens story books. Print media has regularly published events on death and dying on their cover pages especially those on notorious killers (Bryant  Shoemaker 1977). Reports of dying and deathhave been popular in the daily news-papers with the deaths of ordinary people being reported in brief while those of prominent personalities including celebrities receiving large coverage (Walter et al.1995)

Dying and death has at all times been a conflicting issue to comprehend let alone interpret. Every individual has had his or her personal opinion on death and dying. Nevertheless, the society being the major influencer has had a big impact on peoples belief of death (Tony, 2009) .For hundreds of years print media has been used to spread information and news to many people. Academic research on dying, bereavement and death can be dated back to 1960s in United Kingdom and United States this is because research on death is a new field. Glennys Howarth (2007) contributes to the new field of mortality studies by assessing the societal construction of death, bereavement and dying in modern, contemporary and traditional times. She notes peoples experiences of death and dying as resulting from the crosscutting of individual agency and social structure, subjectivity and objectivity, individuality and collectivity. The most important question to note has been how communities and societies handle the issue of mortality when confronted with it (Berger Luckmann, 2006).

An article by Tony Walter (2009) analyses the degree of, and response to coverages in the print media of Jade Goody, a media celebrity based in Britain. A few sociologists have despised death as being in sequestration with the body thus the sociological importance behind the high and intense coverage of Jades profile in the later weeks. More so the exaggerated disturbing photos from the press for instance those which enhanced her baldness are some of the issues which elicited controversies among sociologists. Jades photographs brought different reactions accompanied alongside disapproval of dying in public On the other hand, media shadowing of private and public death have created innovative ways of publicizing personal, emotional and bodily understanding of death (Glennys, 2007).

Disaster, bereavement and death have received publications from both down-market and up -market mass media. An increased percentage of pictures and stories on the British newspapers fore front pages have been concerned with death as stated by Walter et al (1995), while it remains pervasive on American television dramas. The death is hence not detached from readers and viewers daily routines of communicating, breakfasting and other duties Death is very visible in public media but technically avoided in private conversations (Tony, 2009). Death as portrayed by the media is rarely experienced by the audience. Individuals in the countryside news face death through accidents, murder, war and disaster and the exceptions have however been in print media articles on the general life threatening ailments. There are a number of first person publications on dying, illnesses and loss in form of news paper columns and books. Pathographies by individuals facing death can be dated as far as 1970 and most of them have been written by persons suffering from cancer (Bingley et al, 2006). Cancer has been one of the conditions that the dying individuals have written about compared to other conditions .Despite the fears associated with this condition readers never seem to get tired of the cancer pathographies. Questions have been posed to state the relationship between family experience with cancer and media presentation of cancer. Pathographies on the other hand tend to lean on the disturbing issue of diagnosis and hope for therapeutic treatment than the wee days of the dying. The uniqueness of some of the deaths in print media has been the methods in which people have received diagnostic results of their deadly ailments and have been expected to live up with them till death for instance when Jade was given her cancer diagnosis results over a reality Television show (Berger Luckmann, 2006 The Times, 2009).

Trends on dying and death in print media have been changing over time. News papers and magazines have continuously published articles on the dying individuals. The audience also still enjoys its ontological security after even having read the articles. Numerous publications on the dying persons have currently dominated the print media for instance the photographs of a dying British television celebrity, Jade Goody who was a victim of cancer. Wendy Richards an EastErenders actress who died of cancer was purported to have send Jade a message of hope after reading from the papers about her condition. Prior to these events there were photographs of George Best, a footballer gasping for breath. Photographs of Terri Schiavo have also been widely observed in her permanent vegetative state. Terri was the high profile focal person on euthanasia arguments (Glennys, 2007).

A column writer for The Times (London) in one of Jades columns has incorporated the fate of Terry Pratchett, an Alzheimers patient and John Suchet a dementia patient in his column. The media has gone ahead in defending the increasing media attraction to Jades fate via columnist for the Guardian who has stated that death is inevitable, despite the fact that current society has been highly blurred by that reality. By writing on the dying people print media, the columnist has been forging towards correcting the societies self rejection of death. For instance, Justine Picardie a columnist for The Sunday Times stated that her sisters public display during her fight with cancer 10 years ago was an avenue to bringing death in to reality of life. On the other hand affirming and creating of value in the life of humans, is totally different from displaying the chronically ill before the cameras as well as in newsprint headlines.

Sociologists Berger Luckmann (2006) in their book social construction of reality also have assessed the effect of the predetermined time and the anxiety about worldly nature of peoples existence. The two have noted that death and dying have been turned into valuables with words such as choice, dignity and rights all over media hence shadowing the fear that comes with death. Of late the call for euthanasia has dominated the public sphere with extensive media broadcast and news print on dying (Berger Luckmann, 2006).

Going by the current trends, dying and death in print media has greatly affected the social make up of the Americans and this has instituted access to social problems for many audiences  not only in the United States but also in other parts of the world. Print media has been criticized by a number of sociologists on violence, racism, and homophobia and war all of which results to death. Social problems associated with media have revolved around dangerous influence on youths and young children, degradation of sexuality and women, and advertising manipulation .The effect of war and violent media on adolescents and children has raised a lot of questions on the advent of print media and it this has resulted in to a complicated interaction of politics, commercial interest and policies (Tony, 2009). The United States federal agencies and congress, stimulated by child advocacy bodies and professional organizations, have asserted that violence in print media has had a negative influence on children (Macmillan encyclopedia of death and dying, 2003). Another social implication is on culture whereby print media has been faced with criticisms concerning publications of death and dying. For instance, Americans complained bitterly on the wall -to- wall reporting following the death of Princess Diana (Jack, 1999). Street posters were heavily criticized for exposing death to public. Many people complained of the increasing personal memorials and street shrines that get away with cemetery bounds. This was said to have lead to social degradation of the culture. Class wars have also resulted from death and dying publication on print media (The Times, 2009). Taking a look at Jades Pathography, some readers and journalists have agued at her lack of talent and education and have not concurred on the fact that someone so incapacitated in education would prosper in contemporary Britain. With erosion of religion and community as well as social fragmentation, persons have been left in isolation when mourning. In a culture which strongly puts emphasis on expression of ones emotions, much is required on talking therapy however this has led to the development of social therapy as another implication of dying and death in media (Glennys, 2007).

In conclusion, television programs, commentaries, newspapers, magazines and books have regularly informed the society the fact that death is real, it is painful and every one of them may soon or later meet with this reality. There has been a particular interest with the decaying and fading away of bodies. With the given examples of Jade, Terri and John Suchet on their dying bodies, it is paramount that the society cannot get away with mortality. Instead of collective and healthy discussion on how to grant life meaning, and celebrate its fading away, the society has expansively developed a morbid fascination on the physical process of dying (The Times, 2009). Some have gone ahead to look for implications in the dying process as opposed to death itself while the main aim of media has been diversionary and for entertainment. However, media coverage on the dying especially in the last days brings confrontation to the readers and viewers with cases such as the death of which Becker (1973) notes as societys most call for diversion. Allusion to painful prolonged fading away in obituaries, traditional documentaries or news media has an important history, to commentate on the same issue in a form of series for several months or weeks in a way of diversionary entertainment (Walter).The celebrity culture together with the associated media should not pose a challenge to conventional daily distinction between the private and public. Watching exhibitions of death, bereavement and dying has enthralled audiences because it overruns within the formal procedure in the media industry. The ignominy and thrill of reality television has been supported by the fact that whilst privacy remains a norm, pleasurably it can be violated via exhibitions and voyeurism as individuals clamor to show and see it all. In the meantime, those outside the media have continued to die of chronic conditions and have remained marginalized in communities and social life.