Media Watch
Vital statistics (births, deaths, marriages, et al.) are one traditional staple of most local daily and weekly newspapers. Or should be.
Exciting to record, write and edit? Seldom. Important? Yes, at least to the dozens up to perhaps thousands most closely involved in some of humankind's most important transitions. Obituaries especially are widely read, followed as one of our natural inventories - for inevitable comparisons, updatings over time.
Unless we are part of the rich and famous or the unusual, most deaths are collected in tabular or summary form; even when considered more newsworthy, obituaries usually merit only short, separate stories.
So given the aging of our society, a rather disturbing newspaper industry attitude has been developing and expanding: obituaries for a price - relatives paying a paper to chronicle basic facts of a person's life and for listing survivors and pending services.
While obituaries were once considered somewhat of a journalistic art form to treat with extra care, time urgency and respect, many papers now seem to go through the motions with even less journalistic efforts and even commonly attach modest price tags to provide this information service.
While family members may be given more control over final wording about the deceased - not all bad - this trend typically leads overall to diminished news coverage and away from more consistent reporting, writing. Instead there may be simply constricted openings of a paper's news and/or advertising columns, at a price, to just routinely record or vaguely comment on one person's historical place.
The New York Times is still one of the few newspapers that continues to emphasize obituaries about the chosen few "important people" as a part of significant daily history ... not to be paid for. However, it, too, has a large paid obituary section.
Others, such as the San Jose Mercury News until recently, also have had perhaps one reporter dedicated almost daily to more extensive, specialized news coverage emphasizing a few who had left their marks on the Santa Clara Valley and neighboring communities. Status? Mostly discontinued.
There are no fees either for such as the Los Altos Town Crier's brief obituaries as a "public service" - routinely limited in most cases to several hundred words if selectively occasionally expanded for those deemed worthy of "more news attention."
Such discretion in news judgment may not always appear fair, consistent. But it is much of the raison d'etre of news work - to try to cull the more significant from the less - to highlight.
It appears even more ironic in these days of so-called bottom line journalism (with news industries preoccupied with profits) that one of the most timed-honored of life's equations is more often commonly turned over to even more depersonalized, business-like accountings and transactions.
During times when our worlds may feel ever more detached, the end of life deserves more attention, rather than less. And even less with $ signs attached.
David L. Grey, Ph.D, of Mountain View, is professor emeritus of journalism at San Jose State University, where he taught and researched on media law and ethics. He can be reached at: greyline@pacbell.net.