For example, when the American film star Marilyn Monroe died, her obituary had to include both her professional name, which everybody would know, and her real name, Norma Jean Baker. The person's name, or names if they had more than one. There are certain pieces of information which must be included in any obituary. Sometimes, for very important people, these two things are split into two separate stories. This means that we need an intro which identifies the person by the main key point of their life and tells the reader that they have died, followed by a paragraph which acts as an intro to the story of their life.
However, as we shall see, we are reporting two things: the news of a person's death and the story of their life. That means that the key points of the story must be identified and the intro must include the most newsworthy of the key points in the story. It must deliver those funeral speeches, as obits.Īn obituary is essentially a news story, and it must be planned as a news story. If a newspaper, radio or television station wants to be part of a community, it must mark the deaths of notable figures in that community. It would be unthinkable to bury the dead body of someone who has been a member of our family, without saying some words about them. It serves the same function as a speech delivered at a person's funeral - it marks the proper respect due to the person who has died and gives them a proper send-off. Such a piece of writing is called an obituary, or usually by its abbreviated title - an obit. For this reason, the time to sum up somebody's lifetime's work is usually when they die. However, people who contribute in a big way to society often do not really retire at all, and many remain active beyond the age of 70 or 80. We can choose an occasion such as their retirement, or their 70th or 80th birthday.
But when can we write such a review of a person's lifetime? It is sometimes good to gather together all the things done by a person, and write a round-up of their contribution to society. However, we report the things which they do day by day and week by week, a little bit at a time. _ What are obituaries?Īs we are reminded throughout The News Manual, news is about people and it is people who make much of the news. We shall see how to deal with the deaths of leading members of society, and people of less high status. In this chapter we shall consider how journalists note the death of somebody in society, reporting both the death itself and the main points of the person's life.
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