Death in Prime Time: Notes on the Symbolic Functions of Dying in the Mass Media
- 1 January 1980
- journal article
- Published by SAGE Publications in The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science
- Vol. 447 (1) , 64-70
- https://doi.org/10.1177/000271628044700109
Abstract
The cultural (and media) significance of dying rests in the symbolic context in which representations of dying are embedded. An examination of that context of mostly violent representations suggests that portrayals of death and dying serve symbolic functions of social typing and control and tend, on the whole, to conceal the reality and inevitability of the event.Keywords
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