Editorial: No one really knows why Charlotte Dawson died

Charlotte Dawson

Reports have been largely careful not to mention anything about the nature of Charlotte Dawson's death, but most media outlets seem to expect their audiences to understand vague references to "sudden death" and "police not seeking anyone else" as meaning something specific but unspoken.

And if that's not clear enough, perhaps in this case the stories about Dawson's depression, financial woes or torment from cyber bullies spell it out.

The problem with much of the coverage of this terrible event is the seeming need to explain the reasoning and to apportion blame - as if one troubled woman's actions can be reduced to, as newspaper editor Michael Cummings tweeted at the weekend, "a simple cause-and-effect scenario. That's a shame."

The bullying angle in particular sparked a Twitterstorm of recriminations. Many, including celebrity-types, took to social media to rip into those they blamed for Dawson's death. (Many of those tweets had been deleted by their authors yesterday).

Some tagged-in their targets, oblivious to the irony of singling out and bullying someone using their huge media influence in front of thousands of followers.

Others damned with more general and sweeping admonitions aimed at "the media".

This "media", they may be surprised to learn, is not one huge amorphous body with a single mind. We are not the Borg, and do not hold secret meetings of our thousands of reporters, subeditors, editors, producers and presenters to discuss how we can mess with democracy.

This may seem obvious, but those on Twitter in particular need reminding that social media is part of "the media" - that they are part of the machine and that what they tweet is self-publishing.

By all means, criticise the media, but accept and take into account you're criticising from within.

And when it comes to laying blame for events such as Dawson's death, know that there may have been many contributing factors, but in the end only one person could have answered the many questions swirling around this tragic story.