Death of an icon
“Death, tragedy, job losses, factory closures, and falls from grace are all examples of somebody’s bad news being good news for journalists” (Harcup, 2015, p47)
Everyone knows that David Bowie has left a great impact not only in the music industry, but also in social changes in our society, he became an icon and a role model for many. It is not surprising that the death of the music chameleon has been the top story on the day he passed not only in his home country but also all around the world.
‘The Sun’ used the picture of one of his most iconic faces. They used a close up shot of it with a big quote from his last single. This quote as it reads may seem somewhat unnatural as if he is predicting his own death and his afterlife. To a reader who doesn’t know who he is, this might be intriguing and inviting to buy the newspaper to seek out the rest of the story.
A man of many faces was honoured through tributes and tabloids by the use of his iconic pictures on the front pages only contribute to the memory of the loss of a great creative spirit, as well as appeal to the audiences.
However with all the good intentions we can not leave out the simple truth that tabloid newspapers are out there to be sold and they do that by sensationalising the news, in this case even thought it is news worthy and in the publics interest, through this death a possibility for audience to connect emotionally to such a famous artist is very strong. We can see the benefits to the publication from this unfortunate death as it made that day a good say to sell newspapers.