Chapter 10, Obituaries

I actually liked this chapter of the book. I think this has been the only topic so far that kind of reflects my way of seeing journalism. I really like “human stories,” which are about noble deeds, feelings and thoughts of average people.
I especially liked the journalist who said, “I don’t write about death, I write about life.” I don’t say I’d enjoy writing obituaries all the time, but I think I’d surely love to write about people who lived worthy lives. I was always drawn to the literature of realism, because it made me see that ordinary people can become main characters of extraordinary stories. I value praising the lives of small people, because they are not media star and actors, not even politicians who influence my life, your life or other’s lives but everyday men and women: our parents, friends, teachers, etc.

I actually have a couple technical questions in connection with obituaries.

1. How do reporters get to know that someone just died?

2. Who gets an obituary? I mean thousands of people die every day in big cities. How do reporters decide on whom to write about? Or is it the family who calls the newspaper and says that this relative of ours died and we want you to write about him/her?

3. How can reporters possibly get enough information about the life a person within a really limited timeframe? There are so many people who die. How can reporters dig up the family and friends of these people?

4. How can someone spot that the person who just died was the local “broom man?”

5. On page 220, there’s a citation of an article about the 12-year-old girl. The second paragraph goes like, “Although they knew it was coming, the end came suddenly for Sarah’s family…” Shouldn’t it be “unexpectedly” instead of “suddenly?”


I have actually never obituaries before. I think in Hungary, we don’t really have such sections in daily newspapers. I’m not sure, though. I know that when a famous person dies, journalists write about them, but they definitely don’t write about “small people,” at least not in big newspapers. I think I’ll read the Obituaries section in The New York Times tomorrow.