Jonathan Ilan Over a dead body: International coverage of grief Abstract: What makes death-related news events internationally appealing? How is the visual coverage of grief tailored for the needs of the international market? And how are the mechanisms for such coverage operated in the field by international news agencies’ photographers? In this article, I conduct an inter- pretive analysis of the funeral of an Israeli officer as it was covered by an Israeli Reuters photographer and an analysis of the “picture of the event” selected for distribution by the photographer. It demonstrates how international news insti- tutions tailor the visual coverage of a local funeral to the complex demands of the international market. Keywords: news pictures, international news agencies, grief, community, cultural identity DOI 10.1515/sem-2015-0003 1 Introduction Expressions of death have been seen as embarrassing, even in bad taste, for decades (Ruby 1995). In recent years, however, it appears death in its various forms of media representation (especially in the news media) has become an essential part of our daily lives; grieving is now considered a normal healthy part of living (Ruby 1995; Hanusch 2010). In many ways, it appears we have accepted death, knowing that, as painful as it may be at times, it is death that eventually liberates our way of living; death as “an indicator of life” (Huntington and Metcalf in Kitch and Hume 2008: xiv). Nowadays, with the help of news media, death has secured its place as a visible aspect of public culture. Death is constantly seen through online news, news broadcasts, and newspapers, although few have studied how the actual theme of death is used in news media (Kitch and Hume 2008). In particular, only a few studies have focused on the international news coverage of death-related Jonathan Ilan, Bar-Ilan University, School of Communication, E-mail: yoni.ilan@gmail.com Semiotica 2015; 205: 229–242