Best Practices When Reporting on Death and Grief

As sad as death is, the reality is that journalists most likely will report on death regularly. People die daily for a multitude of reasons, and what differentiates the journalist’s job from the standard obituary section is the approach the journalist takes to communicating the information.

A journalist’s job is to tell the truth, but in a society where a simple misstep can have grave reverberations, the truth must come dressed in a certain format. How can a journalist report on something as sensitive as loss of life without exacerbating tensions stoked by the death, without extending or worsening community grief, and without inflicting the trauma of the death on a wider audience?

Here are some helpful tips to consider.

DETAILS ARE NECESSARY—BUT NOT ABOUT THE DEATH

The details necessary to acknowledge around the death are: who the person was, who their loved ones are, and how the loss will impact the community. The details one should avoid bringing into their story include moments leading up to the death, details about how death occurred, and other invasive and private moments about the deceased. The line of privacy is an important one to walk for the deceased’s bereaved friends and family, and every effort should be made to include them and how they would like the deceased remembered.

BE SENSITIVE REGARDING INTERVIEWS

The death of a loved one is a horrifically traumatic event, and most likely the people you want to interview for your story will not be ready to tell you much right after the fact. Giving people the space and time to come to you will allow you to connect more deeply to the community and to their process of grief surrounding the deceased, thereby providing more trust in your interviews. Please also do not begin interviews without the consent of the loved ones of the deceased, as that shows disrespect for the grieving process.

DO NOT DIRECT THE GRIEVING PROCESS

No matter what loss you have been through, you do not know what the loved ones of the deceased are experiencing. You cannot. Therefore, trying to impart advice around the grieving process, or else trying to suggest that everything will be okay or that the family should seek “closure” is incredibly destructive to your relationship with the community as well as to the bereaved peoples’ grieving processes. This process cannot and should not be shaped by an outside force, and should be approached with the greatest sensitivity.

DO NOT INCLUDE SOCIAL MEDIA WITHOUT PERMISSION

Using the social media of the deceased without permission is similarly intrusive to the grieving process and falls under the category of details that are unnecessary or invasive. While it is important to give context for the circumstances surrounding the death, it is not necessary to give evidence of the deceased’s state of mind and can be harmful to the public, particularly people struggling with their own mental health, and the bereaved friends and family.

RESPECT THE LANGUAGE YOU ARE GIVEN

While writing in one’s own voice is tantamount for a journalist, it is very important to work with the language the community gives you when reporting on a deceased person and the grief surrounding their loss. The community needs to direct its own grieving process, and in order to amplify and respect that process, the journalist should pay close attention to the language those in the community are giving them to talk about the deceased.