The debate over the absence or presence of death in public discourse has dominated death studies for some time.While the argument that death had been removed from public discourse and only existed in the private realm dominated at first, in recent years scholars have come to accept that death has moved back into public discourse.An important aspect has been the role played by the mass media.However, there has been little empirical research as to what level death is actually visible, for example in terms of photographs.To this end, this paper examines how two German and two Australian newspapers cover death in terms of graphic photographs.By examining the number and types of photographs published during a two-month timeframe, as well as through in-depth interviews with journalists, this paper argues that visible death is still largely absent from public discourse.Importantly, there exist differences as to what level of graphic death is acceptable between individual newspapers as well as countries, supporting the argument that the absence/presence of death dichotomy needs to be seen in a much more complex light.
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