DID SOCIETY KILL JACITHA SALDANA It was only meant to be joke, a prank call at the expense of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. It was not intended for any harm, just a funny wake up call to the sleepy Australian public via a popular radio show. Yet it resulted in the unprecedented popularity (for the wrong reasons) of Mel Greig and Michael Christian and the death and destruction of the livelihood of the Saldhana family. The question to be asked here is not why the two Australian DJ’s decided to pull a prank on the royal bloodline of the United Kingdom, but why a prank call would prompt the suicide of a woman who merely acted as the “receptionist” in the event. It is a question in which we must look away from the noose of the rope as the culprit and delve into the sociological reason behind her death, pure and uncomplicated shame. Primarily, we must define what society actually is. According to German sociologist George Simmel, it is the element of companionship, which defines the true essence of society. The sociological definition of society is “the people who interact in such a way as to share a common culture” (CliffsNotes.com. Culture and Society Defined. 1 Jan 2013
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Thus the culture of a society “consists of the beliefs, behaviours, objects and other characteristics common to the members of a particular group or society.” (CliffsNotes.com. Culture and Society Defined. 1 Jan 2013
.) It is under culture that aspects such as values, norms, tools and institutions come under. It is what defines the individuality of a group or society from others and allows members of the society to interact with each other. Each member of the society shares a cultural bond with each other, be it beliefs, values or even belonging to the same nation state. Societies found in Mexico could be quite different to those found in the U.K. This is not only because language and