News Hit

Does Australian news extend beyond the obituary section, of late?

Anyone who visits Ninemsn News surely knows that the selection of news posted on the page is designed for entertainment as much as it is information. Which might explain my fascination with it. 

Which begs the question: why does Ninemsn think that the Australian concept of news and newsworthy material is so morbid? 

And are they correct?

When I checked the site at approximately three in the morning today (don't ask), I was greeted by the following stories:

• A man who had died after igniting himself when he dropped his cigarette butt onto the vodka he'd accidentally doused himself in.
• The death of two men who fell off of a cliff following a 'verbal argument' (which was updated buy the time I checked the site again at nine this morning to include the death of the third man)
• The death of a newlywed found poisoned in a bathtub

And by this morning, there was another sterling addition to the news-cum-obituaries: another toddler found drowned in a dam in Queensland. 

Keep in mind that this is just a sample of the news coverage from this year, studded with tales of fatalities, and you have to ask yourself; is the world turning into the Darwin Awards, or is our media making it seem that way? 

And if so, what else is actually happening in the world that these tragic stories are taking precedence over when it comes to front-page news?