Victims at the Margins? A Comparative Analysis of the Use of Primary Sources in Reporting Personal Tragedy in Norway and the UK

Abstract

While stories of death and disaster dominate the headlines, it is concerns about intrusion into grief that have understandably shaped ethical thinking about the journalistic reporting of such tragedies. Journalism is intrusive by nature (Newton and Duncan, 2012), and violent death always comes with its own ‘intimate story of loss, grief, betrayal and violation’ (Fullerton and Patterson, 2006: 305). For the journalist covering such stories, the demands are formidable and the ethical dilemmas intense, so it is little wonder that contact with bereaved families is seen as intrusive and avoidance of such contact the more ethical option, despite the families identifying themselves as the primary sources in the stories of their loss. Of course, not all deaths are recorded in the media, and many are reported only briefly, without personal factors such as photographs, obituaries or comment from their family or friends (Greer, 2007). For those left behind, their loved one becomes ‘a man; a woman; a nurse; a construction worker’ whose death is recorded factually without acknowledgement of their life.