It also focuses on newsworthiness of tragedies, and comparisons in how different types of events, like natural disasters or mass murder, are covered, and the usage by relatives of victims of photos to attempt to get justice.

Fishman based her research off of an analysis of the photos included in the coverage of four American news outlets, both tabloid and broadsheet, as well as interviews with several journalists in those and other publications.

She also presents evidence that, again contrary to public perception, tabloid newspapers are actually far less likely to publish photos of dead people than non-tabloid papers.

[3] It also focuses on what makes individual tragedies newsworthy, and comparisons in how different types of events, like natural disasters or mass murder and school shootings, are covered.

She brings up several cases where the families of the victims sought visibility through photos of the dead, including the lynching of Emmett Till and a gang rape and murder in Utter Pradesh.

[4] Sharon Wheeler writing for the magazine Times Higher Education called the book "fascinating, but flawed" and said it opened the way for future discussion,[5] while Newspaper Research Journal's John P. Ferré praised it as a "significant study of value-laden dimensions of gatekeeping decisions, one that should stimulate discussions in classes on media sociology and media ethics", and called it "clearly written, liberally illustrated and compelling".

[3] David D. Perlmutter of the International Journal of Communication praised the book, calling it a "breakout study and milestone contribution", saying it was "likely to remain a highly cited standard source".

[7] Matt Coward, in a review for the Canadian Journal of Sociology, called the book a "powerful and informed dissection of the presentation of both death and the corpse in contemporary American media", and a "carefully considered and thoughtful thesis".

[6] He noted the cover censorship of the assassination image as "tongue-in-cheek", comparing this case to the book drawing attention to "the muffled noise of corpse photojournalism".

[6] Perlmutter viewed the book as demolishing "many fictions about the news business" and "upending a number of long-cherished assumptions" He considered as particularly shocking that it was "not so much the actual images recording the end of life, but rather the need to mitigate their cruel reality, which causes experienced practitioners to recoil when forced to deal with the subject of death.

[7] Coward praised the book as "carefully crafted", with "meticulously copy-edited and beautifully type-set prose", and said it was a "holistic account of the role and treatment of the corpse in both historic and contemporary American media".