How people die vs. media coverage of death • Hacker News Board

Re: How people die vs. media coverage of death

#11

Post by BoiledCabbage » Sun, Apr 15, 2018, 9:03 PM UTC

otakucode wrote: post #3

acidburnNSA wrote: post #2

Wow, terrorism really is overrepresented compared with how we die these days. I wonder if that's some kind of evolutionary echo of a more violent time when a leading cause of death for most humans was regional strife. We're apparently still pretty interested in who's out there somewhere, scheming to come and kill us.

It wouldn't make much sense for the news to report on things which were not newsworthy. That people die from very typical things people always die from just isn't news.

So by the argument, the more terrorism kills, the less it should be reported?

I think it's clear it's not due to its infrequency that it's reported on so much.

Re: How people die vs. media coverage of death

#12

Post by pmoriarty » Sun, Apr 15, 2018, 9:11 PM UTC

There's a fascinating documentary called "A Certain Kind of Death",[1] which shows what happens in the US when someone dies with no next of kin.

[1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErooOhzE268

Re: How people die vs. media coverage of death

#13

Post by mars4rp » Sun, Apr 15, 2018, 9:11 PM UTC

owenshen24 wrote: post #9

Hey everyone, I'm super stoked to see this project getting some more traction! I was responsible for the visualizations / the scraping, so I'm happy to answer any questions people might have about the whole process. ^_^

The coloring of the chart is awful, alzheimer and terrorism having almost identical color.

Re: How people die vs. media coverage of death

#14

Post by blattimwind » Sun, Apr 15, 2018, 9:12 PM UTC

acidburnNSA wrote: post #2

Wow, terrorism really is overrepresented compared with how we die these days. I wonder if that's some kind of evolutionary echo of a more violent time when a leading cause of death for most humans was regional strife. We're apparently still pretty interested in who's out there somewhere, scheming to come and kill us.

> Wow, terrorism really is overrepresented compared with how we die these days.

How many people do you know that were killed or injured in a terrorist attack? Second order? Same question for {murdered, illness, natural cause}. Compare magnitudes.

Re: How people die vs. media coverage of death

#15

Post by soSadSoSorry » Sun, Apr 15, 2018, 9:23 PM UTC

mars4rp wrote: post #13

owenshen24 wrote: post #9

Hey everyone, I'm super stoked to see this project getting some more traction! I was responsible for the visualizations / the scraping, so I'm happy to answer any questions people might have about the whole process. ^_^

The coloring of the chart is awful, alzheimer and terrorism having almost identical color.

Oh you!

Re: How people die vs. media coverage of death

#16

Post by darkerside » Sun, Apr 15, 2018, 9:34 PM UTC

owenshen24 wrote: post #9

Hey everyone, I'm super stoked to see this project getting some more traction! I was responsible for the visualizations / the scraping, so I'm happy to answer any questions people might have about the whole process. ^_^

I think the concept here is fascinating. One thing I didn't see addressed was that it's not totally unexpected for rare causes of death to be overrepresented in the news (apocryphally, it's been said that "dog bites man" is not news--"man bites dog" is).

That said, it seems like the modern short news cycle has edged out attention being paid to long term trends (kidney disease mortality prevalence was surprising to me as well).

Re: How people die vs. media coverage of death

#17

Post by badminton1 » Sun, Apr 15, 2018, 9:38 PM UTC

According to the charts, most people die of cardiovascular disease and cancer.

First, most people think their habits and diet are not leading them to a cardiovascular disease. Then, those conditions that primarily afflict a specific demographic. So it might not be as relevant to someone who is let's say, less than 40 years old.

Re: How people die vs. media coverage of death

#18

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Apr 15, 2018, 9:52 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: How people die vs. media coverage of death

#19

Post by mikeash » Sun, Apr 15, 2018, 10:11 PM UTC

lifeformed wrote: post #6

acidburnNSA wrote: post #2

Wow, terrorism really is overrepresented compared with how we die these days. I wonder if that's some kind of evolutionary echo of a more violent time when a leading cause of death for most humans was regional strife. We're apparently still pretty interested in who's out there somewhere, scheming to come and kill us.

I think the fears of terrorism is less about how many people it kills, as how unsafe it makes people feel.

It’s right there in the name.

Re: How people die vs. media coverage of death

#20

Post by troels » Sun, Apr 15, 2018, 10:20 PM UTC

mars4rp wrote: post #13

owenshen24 wrote: post #9

Hey everyone, I'm super stoked to see this project getting some more traction! I was responsible for the visualizations / the scraping, so I'm happy to answer any questions people might have about the whole process. ^_^

The coloring of the chart is awful, alzheimer and terrorism having almost identical color.

I have to concur. I was confused for a moment about the staggering number of deaths caused by terrorism, until I realised what was going on.