Opinion: Was the death of Caroline Flack perpetuated by mainstream media or social media?

Standfirst: Aoife McMahon examines the range of issues which contributed to the death of popular British TV host and celebrity, Caroline Flack.  

Caroline Flack took her own life, in her home in London on the 15th of February this year. 

This occurred after she faced immense backlash having been charged with assaulting her boyfriend, tennis player, Lewis Burton. 

Since her death, there has been an online call for more regulations on the media. One petition that has over 775,000 signatures wants, “to consider a law that would make it a criminal offence, not dissimilar to Corporate Manslaughter, for the British Media to knowingly and relentlessly bully a person, whether they be in the public eye or not, up to the point that they take their own life.”

As a journalism student, I understand that her assault case should have been reported on. By definition, it is news. One of the seven things that make something newsworthy is prominence. This means famous people get reported on just because they are famous and even more so when there has been an event or incident. 

What I disagree with is the follow up stories. The media needed to just report the case, and not all the other unnecessary things. We don’t need daily stories of a shopping trip or her in public without makeup on “looking shaken”. That isn’t news. Stories like “Caroline steps out for the first time after her trial” aren’t important. The media should only report updates on trial or the big events like her stepping down from presenting Love Island.

While even these are not the best reason for reporting on something, it sells newspapers, tabloids and magazines. We can’t solely blame the newspapers if the public are buying them. 

Everyone can claim that they don’t want to see articles like that, but the truth is tabloid newspapers like the Sun and the Daily Mail have a huge following and are able to stay afloat because people buy their newspapers. The public needs to make a change too, not just the newspapers, if everyone stopped buying tabloids and magazines like these, they wouldn’t be able to exist.

The hashtag #StopFundingHate has been making the rounds since Flack’s death. It aims to get people to stop buying papers like The Sun.  

I believe the news organisations who hounded her relentlessly need to be held accountable for Flack’s death. Despite this, I don’t feel it’s fair to completely blame the mainstream media, when social media needs to shoulder some of the complaints. 

My Dad has always said that having social media accounts should be akin to having bank accounts, people should have to provide identification to open one and anonymous accounts should be illegal. This way people can’t hide behind fake names and must be held accountable for their words. 

Almost immediately after the news that Flack assaulted her boyfriend, Twitter was covered with people attacking her, calling for her resignation or making hurtful memes for a quick laugh. 

These same people took to twitter after she had killed herself posting about how “heartbroken” they were to hear about her death. 

Since Flack’s death there had been a call on people in both the mainstream and social media to be nicer. I just hope people listen. 

I think one of Flack’s last Instagram posts sums it up best as it says, “In a world where you can be anything… be kind”. 

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