By drawing a map of the media coverage of important people’s death, this article sheds light on the way media produce post mortem identities and build up various value systems and types of recognition by praising some lives and deaths. Based on a quantitative and qualitative analysis of 2012 mediatized deaths, it explores the journalistic process of allocating value to specific deaths and identifies what and who warrants attention and praise. It also shows how the media coverage of a personality’s death consists of journalistic categorization resulting in the celebration of some identities at the expense of others.