Death under Control: The Portrayal of Death in Mass Print English Language Magazines in Canada

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to discuss the portrayal of death in modern North American society in the highest circulating English language magazines available in Canada and published either in the United States or in Canada, in 1991, 1996, and 2001. The prevailing underlying frame/discourse of which there were a number of sub-variants, was the notion of the control of death. Stories focused on people taking control of death by 1) passive and active euthanasia, 2) suicide with political and social motivations and messages, 3) suicide deaths among celebrities and the families of celebrities, 4) dramatic murders, 5) issues in the “right to die movement,” and 6) new techniques and technologies for life extension. There was a very small minority of articles on miscellaneous issues such as death rates and their variation across geographic region, social class, environmental condition, and cause. The article ends with discussion of the ways that this portrayal of death obfuscates the real lack of control most North Americans, particularly those who are poor or “racialized,” have over the timing, or circumstances of death. In addition, as a critical discourse analysis, it discusses the interests that are served by this perspective.

The “good death”: An integrative literature review

“…The “good death” as a form of social control was another manifestation of control in the literature reviewed. By providing a strong cultural script for the dying, as well as for those who care for the dying, the “good death” directed attitudes and behaviors and created a certain socially sanctioned way to die or to care for the dying (Broom & Cavenagh, 2010; Clarke, 2006; Goldsteen et al, 2006; Hart et al, 1998; McNamara et al, 2007; Seale, 2000; 2004; Semino et al, 2014; van Brussel & Carpentier, 2012; Watts, 2012; Zimmermann & Rodin, 2004; Zimmermann, 2007; 2012). For healthcare professionals, social control manifested in the literature as a requirement to internalize the “good death” ideology and act according to its ideals; indeed, implicit sanctions exist for alternative behaviors (Zimmermann, 2012).…”

Terror park: A future theme park in 2100

“…In technologically dependent societies, news about death is almost without exception, relayed via communication / information technologies (Jones, 2004: 83). Clarke (2005Clarke ( -2006 argues "in the absence of personal experience with death people rely on the media, among other things, for information, attitudes, beliefs and feelings about death and its meanings." Death as a story and image are normal, they are universal features to media, journalism and news-broadcasters, film and television and computer games (Walter, Pickering & Littlewood, 1995;Azoulay, 2001;Berridge, 2001;Field & Walter, 2003;Jones 2004;Knox 2006).…”

Public Dying: Death in the Media and Jade Goody

“…This visibility and accessibility of death via television has not escaped sociologists and cultural analysts attention, as a growing body of literature has attempted to make sense of the public (re)presentation of death (see for example, Clarke 2005–2006; Hanusch 2008; Jemphrey and Berrington 2000; Noys 2005; Walter 2006; Walter et al. 1995).…”

“…This proliferation of death within popular culture has attracted the attention of sociologists who have begun to examine the ways in which death is recounted and represented in the public sphere (see for example Clarke 2005–2006; Seale 2004; Walter 2006; Walter et al. 1995).…”