The death of public figures in the Portuguese press: contributions to a categorization of media characters

Abstract

The death of public figures assumes relevance to the media, given the presence of the news-values of death and notoriety. However, it is not enough to identify these two criteria, because the newsworthiness it’s not pond. From the study of the death of 20 public figures, we noticed the different treatments from the three daily newspapers selected - Correio da Manhã, Diário de Notícias and Jornal de Notícias. We concluded, therefore, that the greater or lesser newsworthiness arises, either with the status of the personality, or with the editorial position of the media, and with some contingencies of the period in which the event occurs. Thus, we propose the categorization of public figures, whose death was covered by the media, based on the study of the different statutes of personalities, such as heroes, myths, celebrities, stars and fame, some of them directly dependent on the media and, of narrative studies.