A weekly newspaper reporter created a word cloud to show some of the insensitive words used by commuters after a man died when he was hit by a train.
Gareth Davies from the Croydon Advertiser decided to examine the Twitter postings made after a man was hit by a train outside East Croydon Station last week, who is thought to have taken his own life.
Gareth was struck by the negative comments made by people on social media, who called the man “selfish” and “inconsiderate” for delaying their journeys in the Monday morning rush-hour, so decided to create a word cloud examining the tweets.
He took a cross-section of around 170 tweets and then used a word cloud, pictured below, to illustrate the prominent words that people were using on Twitter, with the results leading to criticism of internet “trolls” by the Samaritans charity.
Said Gareth: “There been three deaths on railway lines in Croydon in recent months and each time I was struck by reaction on social media.
“It was clear from going through hundreds of tweets that the negative response wasn’t just down to ‘trolls’, but I was unsure about whether it was right to simply repeat what was being said.
“I’ve used word clouds in other situations and thought it would be interesting to take a cross-section of tweets and then use the graphic to illustrate the prominent words people were tweeting.
“It was fairly time consuming as the list had to be created manually, as it made it easier to remove names and common words such as east and Croydon.
“I hope the graphic showed the public response to an apparent suicide in an interesting way, not just online but in the paper. I’m always very careful when writing about the subject, and I was a little worried about what people would make of it, but we’ve had some really good feedback which I appreciate.”
Samaritans director Rachel Kirby-Rider told the paper: “People who send such messages are not aware of the consequences for those who have been bereaved.
“Each death leaves a family without a parent sibling or child. Comments such as these are neither sensitive nor helpful.”
Sign up for our free daily email bulletin
Follow HTFP on Twitter
Got a story? Email the Editor at
This seems like a gimmicky and long-winded way of doing something that adds very little value to the discussion. We all know, because it’s blindingly obvious and will happen every single time, that people’s first reaction to an apparent suicide will be to complain if they are delayed. People making crass and insensitive comments on the web about something they’re not involved in or know precious little about is a fact of life.
Report this comment
Also, what exactly is a ‘cross-section’ of tweets? I’d be interested to know how to go about creating one.
Report this comment
Not sure it’s a good idea to disassociate words from context – many people might have been complaining for example that it was selfish because of the impact it might have had on the train driver for example – which I think is a perfectly valid point of view.
Report this comment
I fail to see how a reporter using a graphic to illustrate his story is newsworthy.
Report this comment
Why is this a story?
Report this comment
I fear a reporter with too much time on his hands has just come to the attention of senior management …
Report this comment
I think it’s great to see a reporter trying to be innovative, looking at new ways to enhance his skills, the presentation of his article and hopefully, making some of his his colleagues realise that they don’t simply have to plod on doing what they did last week, last year and a decade ago.
We’ve all picked up papers and winced at the shocking lack of originality in terms of design and presentation, so I think he should be commended for trying something different.
Report this comment
Originality is great when it works, but for me I think simply reading the article would have been enough. In design terms it’s a bit like trying to make a headline stand out by adding a colour to the outline of type and when that becomes illegible adding a drop shadow. Clarity is what matters, not innovation. An appropriate font choice for the graphic though (I assume he created it) and it looks fine, I just don’t think it adds to the story.
Report this comment
Sounds like the foundations of an art installation to me – cue the Tate Modern.
Report this comment
I believe the reporter could have used his time more fruitfully by interviewing colleagues of the unfortunate train driver and trying to ram home the message about selfishness on the part of would-be suicides.
Report this comment
It’s very simple to do if you’re interested.
http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/7074191/Holdthefrontpage_comments
Report this comment