A musical matter of life and death: the morality of mortality and the coverage of Amy Winehouse's death in the UK press

Paula Hearsum

doi:10.1080/13576275.2012.674305

A musical matter of life and death: the morality of mortality and the coverage of Amy Winehouse's death in the UK press

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

This paper focuses on a sample of UK newspapers covering the period of Winehouse's death and funeral (23 July -8 August 2011). The implicit ‘news values' embedded in the content are contextualised through reference to earlier media coverage of Winehouse. It is shown that the media employed a variety of strategies to represent and construct Winehouse's life and death, thereby determining the nature of the readers' ‘appetites' to consume death as the culmination of the subject's life ‘story'. While some of the sources examined are typical of the reporting of any celebrity death, this research also exposes discourses exclusively utilised for popular musicians whose deaths are framed as ‘punishment' for reckless behaviour.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	182-199
Number of pages	18
Journal	Mortality
Volume	17
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/13576275.2012.674305
Publication status	Published - 1 Jan 2012

Bibliographical note

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis Group in Mortality on 16/05/2012, available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/13576275.2012.674305.

Keywords

death
celebrity
music
morality
media
journalism

Access to Document

10.1080/13576275.2012.674305Licence: Unspecified

mortality_amywinehouse_v6_111116.pdfAccepted author manuscript, 139 KBLicence: Unspecified

Cite this

@article{33d98e620dd04df8b4d697307f51d459,

title = "A musical matter of life and death: the morality of mortality and the coverage of Amy Winehouse's death in the UK press",

abstract = "This paper focuses on a sample of UK newspapers covering the period of Winehouse's death and funeral (23 July -8 August 2011). The implicit {\textquoteleft}news values' embedded in the content are contextualised through reference to earlier media coverage of Winehouse. It is shown that the media employed a variety of strategies to represent and construct Winehouse's life and death, thereby determining the nature of the readers' {\textquoteleft}appetites' to consume death as the culmination of the subject's life {\textquoteleft}story'. While some of the sources examined are typical of the reporting of any celebrity death, this research also exposes discourses exclusively utilised for popular musicians whose deaths are framed as {\textquoteleft}punishment' for reckless behaviour.",

keywords = "death, celebrity, music, morality, media, journalism",

author = "Paula Hearsum",

note = "This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis Group in Mortality on 16/05/2012, available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/13576275.2012.674305.",

year = "2012",

month = jan,

day = "1",

doi = "10.1080/13576275.2012.674305",

language = "English",

volume = "17",

pages = "182--199",

journal = "Mortality",

issn = "1357-6275",

number = "2",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - A musical matter of life and death: the morality of mortality and the coverage of Amy Winehouse's death in the UK press

AU - Hearsum, Paula

N1 - This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis Group in Mortality on 16/05/2012, available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/13576275.2012.674305.

PY - 2012/1/1

Y1 - 2012/1/1

N2 - This paper focuses on a sample of UK newspapers covering the period of Winehouse's death and funeral (23 July -8 August 2011). The implicit ‘news values' embedded in the content are contextualised through reference to earlier media coverage of Winehouse. It is shown that the media employed a variety of strategies to represent and construct Winehouse's life and death, thereby determining the nature of the readers' ‘appetites' to consume death as the culmination of the subject's life ‘story'. While some of the sources examined are typical of the reporting of any celebrity death, this research also exposes discourses exclusively utilised for popular musicians whose deaths are framed as ‘punishment' for reckless behaviour.

AB - This paper focuses on a sample of UK newspapers covering the period of Winehouse's death and funeral (23 July -8 August 2011). The implicit ‘news values' embedded in the content are contextualised through reference to earlier media coverage of Winehouse. It is shown that the media employed a variety of strategies to represent and construct Winehouse's life and death, thereby determining the nature of the readers' ‘appetites' to consume death as the culmination of the subject's life ‘story'. While some of the sources examined are typical of the reporting of any celebrity death, this research also exposes discourses exclusively utilised for popular musicians whose deaths are framed as ‘punishment' for reckless behaviour.

KW - death

KW - celebrity

KW - music

KW - morality

KW - media

KW - journalism

U2 - 10.1080/13576275.2012.674305

DO - 10.1080/13576275.2012.674305

M3 - Article

SN - 1357-6275

VL - 17

SP - 182

EP - 199

JO - Mortality

JF - Mortality

IS - 2

ER -

A musical matter of life and death: the morality of mortality and the coverage of Amy Winehouse's death in the UK press

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

Access to Document

Fingerprint

Cite this