Surma kajastamine ajalehtedes Postimees, Eesti Päevaleht ja Õhtuleht ning asjaolud, millest ajakirjanik surma kajastades lähtub

„Reflecting on death in the newspapers Postimees, Eesti Päevaleht and Õhtuleht and the circumstances, from which the journalist originates when reflecting on death.“ The author finds, that the topic of their research is important, because a persons death, may it be from an illness, murder, suicide, traffic accident or from which other reason, is often unexpected and touches people deeply. It is often the case, that someones death or the reason of their death is so newsworthy, that in addition to the close ones of the deceased, the journalists who write and the people who read about it are affected, too. Which is why it is important to write about death in a way that wouldn’t cause any additional strain to the close ones of the person passed. Though when it comes to a subject that deep and delicate, it is not easy. Bachelor’s thesis has on one hand been looking for an answer to the question, how has death been reflected on in the newspapers. For that there were taken deathrelated articles from three of the biggest daily newspapers in Estonia: „Postimees“, „Eesti Päevaleht“ and „Õhtuleht“. On the other hand, attention has been turned towards how the journalist has been affected by writing about death, what are the circumstances that the article is built up on, what are the most difficult parts for the journalist and what does it all emotionally mean for the journalist. Expertinterviews have been carried out for that. The central issues of the bachelor’s thesis are „How is death being reflected on in Estonian printed media?“, „What does the journalist originate from when writing about death?“ and „How does writing about death affect the journalist?“. The thesis has been divided into five chapters, which, in turn, into subchapters. The first chapter brings out the theoretical starting points of the thesis. The second chapters gives an overview of the used methodics and the principle, by which the selection has been put together in each part of the thesis. The third chapter contains coded texts and the fourth the results of the analysis based on the expertinterviews. The fifth chapter contains conclusions and discussion. The bachelor’s thesis has also partly been based upon the authors seminar thesis „The reflection of death in the newspapers Postimees, Eesti Päevaleht and Õhtuleht.“ In the first part of the research, there were quantitative and qualitative analysis used to get the answers to the questions raised. The selection consisted of 52 articles dating from 15th of October to 27th of November 2008. The articles were taken from the newspapers ,,Postimees,” ,,Eesti Päevaleht” and ,,Õhtuleht”. As it came out from the results, the Estonian press mostly reflected on famous people’s deaths or cases, in which more than one person had died. Mainly murders. Preferring different people or bureaus as the sources was different for all of the papers. In Postimees, only the close ones of the deceased had been used as the source. In lesser stories, different sources with different statuses were used. Eesti Päevaleht and Õhtuleht had mostly used many different sources who had had different relationships with the person who had passed. In the articles, there was mostly attention on the emotions, not the facts. More than a third of the stories rather had emotions and people’s memories in them than the facts. The least of the stories had only facts in them. As the journalist has to stay neutral when writing an article, you could read out the painfulness of it all from the quotes of the sources and the background descriptions. From the second part of the research - the expertinterviews with seven journalists (they were answered in written form in two cases) came out, that although reflection on death is difficult for journalists they still have to do it, because death is a part of our life. When writing about death, the journalist has to balance between two groups – the readers and the ones close to the deceased. The main thing for a journalist to base on when writing about death is not to hurt the close ones even more with the article. Sparing the close ones, as such, also appears in the selection of the sources. The journalists find, that the close ones, who are already having a hard time, shouldn’t be used as the sources. The best sources for the articles about someone’s death are said to be the dead persons friends, colleaugues, neighbours – people, who know the deceased, but are not too closely involved in what’s happened. The journalists say, that the articles about death can have several different purposes. On one hand, people can learn from others mistakes (speeding, etc.), on the other hand, these stories have a humane aspect. People, who have gone through similar situations, could get support from these stories. When it comes to someone famous having died, an article is a way to pay one’s last respects to the person. It is emotionally difficult for a journalist to write about death. From one side it has been made difficult by a concern for the close ones of the deceased and the emotionally tough interviews that one often has to carry out. From the other side is the infinity of death. It if often difficult for journalists to go on with their lives after writing about death, because what happened leaves a mark on them and in some cases makes them think about their own mortality. At the same time it gets easier, because the writers learn to, so to say, block out the stories and don’t take the death-related stories into their hearts that much any more. Reflecting on death is difficult for a journalist for many reasons. At the same time they find, that for different reasons it is necessary, which is why they learn to handle such topics during their lives.http://www.ester.ee/record=b4014923*es