What Americans die from vs. what's reported in the media

@infobeautiful @ourworldindata Does the media really expect us to believe that 18% of deaths in the United States are the result of terrorism? Seriously?

@raymaccarthy @infobeautiful @ourworldindata If you're in Russia, it's from falling out of windows.

@PattyHanson @raymaccarthy @infobeautiful @ourworldindata in the US it's probably from incompetent gun handling. And similar incompetent use of cars.

@PattyHanson @infobeautiful @ourworldindata that's not exactly what the graph is about. The media isn't claiming that 18% of deaths are terrorism. Instead, reporting about terrorism deaths makes up about 18% of all reporting on deaths. In other words, the media *talks* a lot about terrorism deaths, but it doesn't *claim* that those deaths make up 18% of the total.

@raymaccarthy @infobeautiful @ourworldindata "accidents" are overwhelmingly car crashes but shhhh

@raymaccarthy @infobeautiful @ourworldindata actually, all of these issues can be boiled down to lack of health care, overwork, economic precarity, environmental hazards out of our control, and a society that's pretty much abandoned disabled and chronically ill people to die.

stop blaming individual choices, start blaming institutions

@infobeautiful @ourworldindata

Wonderful. "Draw me a picture of NYTimes propaganda"

@PizzaDemon @infobeautiful @ourworldindata

i don't know but i would say that some of those COVID deaths should be classified as homicide or suicide

people who died of COVID who did everything right but were betrayed by a MAGA moron who introduced the disease into their life and killed them

and MAGA morons who essentially committed suicide by COVID because they took no precautions and imagined their prideful ignorance was a magic shield, or just didn't care if they died

@benroyce @infobeautiful @ourworldindata it would take a magical level of re-observation, but a fair chunk of covid, accidents, and others could be reclassified as "recklessness".

@infobeautiful @ourworldindata

does the NYT mostly mirror other outlets that most people get their news from? living near Chicago, I mostly hear about crime from other sources.

@infobeautiful @ourworldindata I get what this is saying, but isnt this the old "man bites dog" issue?
Of course the media will report sensational, extraordinary things. This is what people want to hear about.
It's also easier when there are clear villains and victims, and not something abstract like economic forces, infrastructure, or lifestyle.

@DrorBedrack @infobeautiful @ourworldindata I was going to say the same thing. The top 9 bars on the left could all be called "natural causes," or even "old age" if they happen late enough, and add up to over 90%. It's not exactly newsworthy.

But then, I think the problem is that the sensationalism leads to people being easily manipulated by bad actors who use the fears of extreme events to drum up support for harmful policies. If anything, this strikes me as an indictment of for-profit news companies, especially when they're owned by people who benefit from harmful policies.

@infobeautiful @ourworldindata The reporting possibly depends on who the problems affected?

My mom dying of cancer vs anyone who might normally be in the news.

@infobeautiful @ourworldindata That's the press for you - all sensation and zero truth - or - "keep the peasants distracted while we rob them'...

@infobeautiful @ourworldindata

Sensation sells…

@infobeautiful @ourworldindata
Of course! And besides the terrorism and homicides the only time the media reports cancer, overdoses, heart disease, etc., is when it happens to a celebrity or other well known person.

The data is from 2023, which was during Biden. With the pressure of the #Trump administration in 2025, I imagine the current data to be even more divergent.

@infobeautiful @ourworldindata

Graphs of media vs clinical morbidity & mortality tables always fascinate me.

When someone is banging on about "the southern border" and all these other dire threats, and you ask them to list the top ten things they think will put them in the hospital or grave, they almost always list murder in the top three, and the rest of the list is a hodge-podge of silliness.

When you show them for THEIR ethnicity, gender, and age group what actually does, they waffle

@infobeautiful @ourworldindata

@infobeautiful @ourworldindata the media is only reporting, “if it bleeds it leads”.

@infobeautiful @ourworldindata

Better be prepared for MAHA and the anti-vaxxers to warp coverage even further from reality.