Obit Research » studies http://obitresearch.com Exploring the American obituary Thu, 08 Apr 2010 04:08:44 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 “The Reporting of Grief” http://obitresearch.com/2009/10/26/the-reporting-of-grief/ http://obitresearch.com/2009/10/26/the-reporting-of-grief/#comments Tue, 27 Oct 2009 02:46:47 +0000 Kate Goshorn http://obitresearch.com/?p=157 As part of my obituary research I read an interesting study, “The Reporting of Grief”, by one newspaper of record for the U.S.: the New York Times.

The study seems to be more about articles about the grief process and grieving in general, rather than obituary writing, but I thought what the study said was interesting and telling. Here are some highlights:

  • The study asks: Is grief socially constructed by the media?
  • People, the study says, look to institutions to help them understand grief and give them instructions on how to grieve. The definitions provided by institutions are never all-inclusive, and leads to “disenfranchised grief.”
  • The study says the media (and I would argue the larger American popular culture) present grief as an abnormal state of mind, something to be “cured” of.
  • The study found that experts gave different, conflicting messages about grieving depending on the framing of reporters’ questions.

Also interesting is that during 2000-2006 articles equated handling one’s grief “well” with handling it quickly.  The study ends by recommending that topics not be chosen/constructed with the aim of “curing” or “taming” an illness, because grief isn’t an illness, but a personal journey.

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