Engaging death
Week five readings
Pictures of the year Multimedia winners
It was quite interesting that the top two winning stories of the multimedia category of the 66th POY dealt with such morbid subjects. I wonder if that was reflective of the mood of that year – that as the economy down spiraled, there was doom and gloom.
Nonetheless, of the two stories, I thought “Crafting beauty from death” was stunning and graphic, yet interestingly light-hearted, which gave the story great irony, juxtaposition and depth.
What was perhaps most striking about the two pieces was that unlike “Final Journey”, the MSNBC.com piece did not include the reporter’s voice. This, I thought, helped paint a more intimate portrait of the owner of the funeral home. It brought focus to the subject and made me feel much more connected with him.
Having done so, the report ran the risk of turning into an opportunity for the funeral home owner to hard sell his business – which towards the end the report gave him some space to, and in a most humorous manner. But this was largely avoided by getting the subject to talk about the issue at hand instead and allowed him to express his personal insights about death. What a story!
