The construction of grievable death: Toward an analytical framework for the study of mediatized death

Abstract

Death generates rituals that organize the social world and bring to the fore the relational ties individuals have with one another. The media not only constitute the space where some of these death rituals take place but also are pivotal institutions that provide moral orientation. This article is interested in death-related media rituals and the extent to which these propose a way for individuals to situate themselves within a broader, social and political structure. Inspired by Judith Butler’s discussion of grievability, the article introduces the analytics of mediatized grievability, which offers a way of studying and analyzing news about death. This analytical framework unpacks the notion of grievability and accounts both for the properties of mediatized death rituals and for the moral principles embedded in these. The framework offers a systematic method of analyzing news about death and identifying the ethical solicitation such news addresses to its spectators with regard to how they should feel and act in situations of distant death.

Keywords

Death rituals distance grievability media rituals mediatization morality solidarity witnessing

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