Lives Worth Grieving: Differential Coverage of Overdose Deaths in Australian News Media (2015–2020)

Abstract

This article explores the differential coverage of drug overdose death in three major Australian newspapers between 2015 and 2020. It outlines the number of articles, the types of voices, and emotional collectives drawn on in three types of overdose death stories: those related to injecting drug use, pharmaceuticals (largely opioids), and those that occurred at music festivals. Our analysis finds that in each newspaper festival deaths are reported on more than other types of overdose stories, even though deaths in the other categories represent significantly larger loss of life. Beyond the number of articles written about each type of overdose, our analysis pays attention to emotional collectives, such as pity, surprise, and grief, and how these constitute the overdose victim. We argue that the differential media treatment of overdose deaths—depending on substance involved, social circumstance—is intimately (if implicitly) linked to a differential valuing of human life. We explore the way people who die of an overdose exist on a spectrum, from those who are visible and valued subjects in media coverage (the grievable), to those who are abject and already lost (the ungrievable). Finally, our analysis finds that proximity to White and middle-class culture structures the way the lives of overdose victims are (re)produced as lives worth grieving in media coverage.