Wikipedia:Obituaries as sources
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Obituaries published by high-quality reliable sources are often treated as valuable sources for articles on deceased individuals, since they provide a broad overview of the subject's life. They should, however, be used with caution; they are often not intended to be neutral, but to eulogize (or, in more rare cases, actively condemn) the subject.[1] In this respect, they are often better treated as opinion-pieces rather than news articles; even an obituary in an extremely high-quality source that is otherwise usable for facts may only be WP:RSOPINION.[2]
Likewise, due to this tendency towards eulogy, obituaries may emphasize aspects of a subject's life that are not particularly significant otherwise, such as philanthropy or charitable donations. They may describe the subject as having been widely-loved, or with other comparable descriptors, as a pro forma way of eulogizing them, rather than as an accurate or precise summary of the significant aspects of their life.
While eulogies are written to summarize the subject's entire life, they are also, ultimately, only a snapshot of how people felt about them at a particular moment in time; in that respect relying too heavily on a eulogy for a recently-deceased individual may lean towards WP:RECENTISM in that it over-emphasizes the feelings and focus evoked by their death. When covering the reaction to their death is the intent, an obituary is generally a WP:PRIMARY source.
Be particularly cautious of things that are only emphasized in obituaries, and which are not given comparable emphasis in other coverage of the subject; those sorts of things may not actually be significant enough to include, especially not in an article's lead.
Paid obituaries, or those that are released by private individuals, are self-published sources about third parties, and should generally not be used at all.
References[edit]
- ^ Hume, Janice. "Write ill of the dead? Obits rarely cross that taboo as they look for the positive in people's lives". The Conversation. Retrieved April 13, 2021.
- ^ As Nigel Farndale, Obituaries Editor of The Times, has said: "obituaries are supposed to be life–affirming, not gloomy" "Writing obituaries can be strangely life-affirming | the Spectator".