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The coverage of death in the foreign news of German and Australian quality newspapers

This study investigates the values that the print media place on human lives in an international context. This was conducted by examining the coverage of death in international news. Although the research literature shows a number of studies that examined the coverage of death, this particular study differs from previous studies because all such previous research has had either a narrow focus or shortcomings in their research methods. In this context, this study is a comprehensive evaluation of how newspapers cover death in foreign news. By focussing on quality newspapers in Germany and Australia, namely the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the Süddeutsche, The Australian and the Sydney Morning Herald, the study identified the differences in the coverage of death in these newspapers. In particular the study examined whether these newspapers gave preference in any form to reports of death from countries that were culturally similar as opposed to countries that were culturally dissimilar countries. The study further examined and highlighted the basis on which journalists in Germany and Australia made news decisions about whether or not to cover foreign events that included death and what criteria informed their news decisions. By applying a cultural framework developed especially for the purpose of examining international news, the study found clear evidence that journalists primarily look for a cultural connection to their own country in making news judgments in regard to foreign news coverage. The framework used in this study was based on the following four cultural dimensions: world views, value systems, systems of social organisation and systems of symbolic representation. In this regard, an event in which a large number of people have died, but which is located in a country that does not have many links along these dimensions with the newspapers home country will not necessarily rate very highly. In contrast, an event involving a few dead people would rate highly if the event occurred in a country with which the newspapers home country has many links along the four dimensions. In this regard, issues such as news fatigue, also called compassion fatigue, can be overcome by a cultural connection to another country. Differences in how German and Australian quality newspapers treated stories about foreign death, both in the use of language and the use of photographs, were also examined in detail. In this regard, Australian newspapers were found to display relatively more tabloid characteristics than German newspapers, with clear differences in the language used when describing death. Differences in the use of graphic photographs were not as clear, though distinctions could still be made to a certain degree across national lines. In general, journalists approaches to how they treated death could also be traced back to some distinct cultural differences between Germany and Australia.