A new study has found that personal visits, or "death knocks", following sudden deaths may be better than journalists "snubbing" bereaved families and instead relying on social media.

It also found that attempts to protect the bereaved through regulation following the Leveson Inquiry could "backfire" by discouraging journalists from contacting families.

The study by Jackie Newton, of Liverpool John Moores University, and Dr Sallyanne Duncan, of the University of Strathclyde, involved interviewing 49 reporters from the regional press and six editors or senior journalists with responsibility for the use of social media in "death knock stories".

Read more at Press Gazette