Young People Encountering Mediated Death: Traumatic Texts, Emotional Resonation and the Psychology of Death
Emotionally charged depictions of death play an important role in much contemporary media directed toward teen and young adult audiences. Across creative works as diverse as interactive digital games, graphic novels, short form serial narratives, television and films, young people gain opportunities to engage with representations of death that position the deceased as a multi-dimensional person whose loss is tragic and demands to be mourned. In some cases, such as the Netflix show 13 Reasons Why, and the major motion picture Me Before You, representations of death, dying, and the decision to end one’s own life have been subject to public outcry and criticism.