Media’s Perception of How American’s Die

The media has an unmatched ability to shape our views of the world we live in. What we search for on Google and other search engines has a similar effect. What if the media and/or search engine results are not accurately representing reality? A study was done by Our World in Data to compare the relationship between how Americans most commonly die versus the types of deaths most often shown in the media.

Looking at the graph, you can see the reality of how most Americans die is strikingly different than the deaths the media covers. Instead of significant killers like heart disease or cancer being main stories, more sensationalistic topics such as homicide and terrorism make up the bulk of media coverage. Similarly, Google search results also show a disproportionate number of searches for topics like suicide and terrorism.

So what does this information mean to us? We need to realize there may be a big disconnect between what is presented in the media / search engines and what is actually happening in our lives. You probably already know that, but you may not have known how significant the differences can be.