Assessing the Quality of Media Reporting of Suicide Deaths in Bangladesh Against World Health Organization Guidelines

Suicide prevention: reflections on progress over the past decade

Interest in preventing suicides has increased greatly in recent years. In this Personal View, we consider the general global developments related to suicide prevention that have occurred in the decade since The Lancet Psychiatry was first published in 2014. We then review specific advances during this period, first, in relation to public health initiatives, and second, with regard to clinical developments. Finally, we examine some of the challenges that currently confront individuals and organisations responsible for designing and implementing suicide prevention measures.

Changes in Media Reporting Quality and Suicides Following National Media Engagement on Responsible Reporting of Suicide in Canada: Changements de la Qualité des reportages dans les médias sur les suicides suite à l'engagement des médias nationaux à la déclaration responsable du suicide au Canada

OBJECTIVE

Responsible media reporting is an accepted strategy for preventing suicide. In 2015, suicide prevention experts launched a media engagement initiative aimed at improving suicide-related reporting in Canada; its impact on media reporting quality and suicide deaths is unknown.

METHOD

This pre-post observational study examined changes in reporting characteristics in a random sample of suicide-related articles from major publications in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) media market. Articles (n = 900) included 450 from the 6-year periods prior to and after the initiative began. We also examined changes in suicide counts in the GTA between these epochs. We used chi-square tests to analyse changes in reporting characteristics and time-series analyses to identify changes in suicide counts. Secondary outcomes focused on guidelines developed by media professionals in Canada and how they may have influenced media reporting quality as well as on the overarching narrative of media articles during the most recent years of available data.

RESULTS

Across-the-board improvement was observed in suicide-related reporting with substantial reductions in many elements of putatively harmful content and substantial increases in all aspects of putatively protective content. However, overarching article narratives remained potentially harmful with 55.2% of articles telling the story of someone's death and 20.8% presenting an other negative message. Only 3.6% of articles told a story of survival. After controlling for potential confounders, a nonsignificant numeric decrease in suicide counts was identified after initiative implementation (ω = -5.41, SE  =  3.43, t  =  1.58, p  =  0.12).

CONCLUSIONS

We found evidence that a strategy to engage media in Canada changed the content of reporting, but there was only a nonsignificant trend towards fewer suicides. A more fundamental change in media narratives to focus on survival rather than death appears warranted.

Suicide in the press: an analysis of newspaper coverage of adolescent versus adult suicides in Italy

BACKGROUND

An association between sensationalized media reporting and subsequent increase in suicidal behavior has been documented, and adolescents are especially vulnerable to imitative influences. The aims of this study were to examine the characteristics of the articles reporting adult and adolescent (under age 18) suicides in the Italian press and to assess adherence to the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines for responsible reporting. Methods: The print versions of the three newspapers with the widest national distribution in Italy were searched for all the articles on incident suicides printed over a 7-month period (July 2022 to February 2023). Articles were examined for adherence to the WHO guidelines. Results: Overall, 213 articles were identified, reporting on 122 individual suicide cases (88.5% adults and 11.5% adolescents). Of the articles, 78.9% were on adults and 21.1% on adolescents, with a ratio articles/suicide cases of 1.6 for adults and 3.2 for adolescents (p < 0.0001). Adolescent suicide articles had more words (mean 612.5 ± SD 275.6) than adult ones (462.1 ± 267.7, p = 0.001). Potentially harmful reporting features were present in both the adult and adolescent articles (12-82%). Few articles (0-15%) included protective features. Articles on adolescents were more adherent to the WHO guidelines for omitting specific information of suicide method and location. Conclusions: Significant differences were found in the press reporting of adolescent versus adult suicides, with adolescent suicides receiving more attention in terms of the number of articles and article length. Suicide press reporting can be improved. A close collaboration between journalists and suicide prevention experts may be beneficial.

Long-Term Changes in the Quality of Media Reporting of Suicide Following a Celebrity Suicide in India

Online portals of selected English and local language newspapers and television channels were searched to identify suicide news reports published one year after the celebrity suicide (ACS). These reports (n = 1952) were compared with the corresponding period of the previous year, immediately following the celebrity suicide (ICS) (n = 2486), and a three-month period before the celebrity suicide (BCS) (n = 1381) to assess longitudinal changes in quality of media reporting. There was a decline in reporting of several potentially harmful characteristics over time such as mentioning the deceased's age and gender (p < .001 for both), and location of suicide (p < .001). The quality of media reporting of suicide was significantly better at one year compared to the period immediately following celebrity suicide. This change was mainly driven by an improvement in the reporting quality of English news reports while local language reports continued to remain poorly adherent to reporting guidelines.

Nigerian newspapers coverage of suicide: Assessment of adherence to WHO suicide reporting guidelines

Context

Despite an increase in research evidence on media compliance with suicide reporting guidelines globally, evidence from Nigeria seems to be relatively limited.

Aim

This study assessed the prevalence of World Health Organization (WHO) helpful/harmful suicide reporting cues in suicide stories reported by Nigerian newspapers in 2021.

Setting and Design

The setting is the entire Nigeria and the design is descriptive.

Method

Quantitative content analysis method was adopted and 205 online suicide-related stories from news portals of 10 purposefully selected newspapers were analyzed. The newspapers selected were among the top 20 in Nigeria and had higher circulation/coverage and considerable online presence. Evaluation framework was designed following moderated WHO guidelines.

Statistical Analysis Used

Descriptive statistics (frequencies and percentages) were used for the analysis.

Results

The study suggested high prevalence of harmful reporting and near absence of helpful suicide reporting cues among Nigerian newspapers. Majority of the stories, 95.6% mentioned suicide in the headline; 79.5% provided details on the suicide methods employed; 66.3% offered mono-causal explanation to suicide; and 59% featured images of suicide victims and/or suicide-related graphics. Helpful reporting cues were almost nonexistence as only less than 4% of the stories traced warning signs, reported mental health experts/professionals' opinions, featured research findings/population level statistics, and provided details on the identity/contact of suicide prevention programs/support services.

Conclusion

Prevalence of harmful suicide-reporting practice among Nigerian Newspaper presented a gloomy future for suicide prevention in the country. There be training and motivation programs for health/crime reporters/editors on responsive media coverage of suicide following (a domesticated) WHO guidelines.

Assessing the quality of media reporting of suicide deaths in Pakistan against international guidelines

BACKGROUND

In Pakistan, there is lack of official suicide data due to associated stigma and socio-cultural factors. Although, suicide incidents are regularly reported in newspapers there are no official suicide reporting guidelines.

AIMS

The aim was to study the quality of suicide reporting in Pakistani newspapers and compare it to international media guidelines.

METHOD

Newspaper reports on suicide deaths were searched in four Pakistani national newspapers from 1st January 2019 to 31st December 2020. Data was extracted using templates based on World Health Organization and Reporting on Suicide media guidelines.

RESULTS

There were total 2,295 suicides reported in 2 years. The word 'suicide' was mentioned in title of 2,113 (92.06%) reports. In 70.37% news articles, motive for suicide was reduced to a single factor. Method was mentioned in 95.6% suicides. Pictures accompanied 103 (4.4%) news reports. Only 13 (0.57%) the news stories recognized the link between substance abuse and suicide. None of the reports provided education to public about suicide or mentioned resources to seek help.

CONCLUSIONS

The articles reporting on suicide deaths were regularly featured in Pakistani newspapers with strikingly low level of adherence to suicide reporting guidelines.

Suicide in Bangla Movie and Drama: A Content Analysis

We aimed to assess how suicidality has been depicted in Bangla movies and dramas. We conducted a search on YouTube by using search terms to identify movies and dramas with suicidal scripts. The search was performed between February and May 2022 resulting in 71 items consisting of 35 Bangla movies and 36 Bangla dramas. We scrutinized the contents of movies and dramas against our pre-designed instrument and we assessed their quality against World Health Organization guidelines. Among the 71 suicidal behaviors, 46.5% were suicides, 72% of the suicidal behavior was noted in young adults, 63.9% were unmarried, and 69% attempts were found in prominent characters. Hanging was found as the most prominent method (25.4%) and premarital and extramarital affairs and sexual harassment were the most prominent risk factors (60.6%). The potentially harmful characteristics were present in almost all events whereas potentially helpful contents were mentioned very minimally.

Quality of Media Reporting of Suicide in Nepal

Objectives. Suicide is a major public health concern. Sensible media reporting of suicide is one of the important prevention strategies. There has been no report assessing the quality of media reporting of suicide in Nepal. We aimed to assess the quality of newspaper reporting of suicide in Nepal against the World Health Organization (WHO) reporting guidelines. Methods. We undertook a content analysis study of articles from the online archives on reporting of suicide deaths in six English language (daily or weekly) newspapers published in Nepal over the two-year duration from a period between January 1, 2019, and December 31, 2020. Also, we compared them with the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines. Results. A total of 165 English newspaper articles reporting on suicide were analyzed. 163 (98.8%) of news were published in the main section of the newspaper, and the mean length was 17.6 sentences. The name and age of the person who died of suicide were mentioned in about 69.1% ( $n=114$ ) and 53.3% ( $n=88$ ) articles, respectively. The most common method of suicide reported in the news articles was hanging (45.5%, $n=75$ ), followed by poisoning (11.5%, $n=19$ ). About 97.6% ( $n=161$ ) of news articles violated the recommendation provided in the WHO guidelines. Conclusions. The adherence to the WHO guidelines for media reporting of suicide in Nepal was found to be poor, with a large majority of news reports having at least one potentially harmful media characteristic. Only a small minority of news reports included potentially helpful information to prevent suicide.

Assessing the Quality of Suicide Reporting in Online Newspapers in Uttar Pradesh, India, According to World Health Organization Guidelines

Background: Sensitive media reporting has an important role in suicide prevention. However, there is no research on the quality of media reporting of suicide in newspapers of Uttar Pradesh (UP), India. Aim: The present study aimed to assess the quality of newspaper reports of suicide against the World Health Organization (WHO) reporting guidelines. Method: Suicide news content of four purposively selected newspapers published between March 1, 2019 and February 29, 2020, were scrutinized. A total of 501 news reports from UP were included. Results: The most commonly reported attribute was the gender of the deceased and the method of suicide. Almost half of the newspapers reported the occupation of the deceased in the title. Mental illness was attributed as a cause of suicide among 23.75% of the news reports. Less than 2% of the news reports referred to expert opinion, research evidence, national or global statistics on suicide, suicide prevention measures, or information about suicide helpline. There was a significant difference in the quality of reporting between the vernacular newspapers and English dailies. Limitations: Only four online newspapers were analyzed retrospectively. Conclusion: The quality of media reporting of suicide in UP is found to be poor despite its negative effect on suicide.

Newspaper reporting of suicide in Nepal: Quality assessment against World Health Organization media guidelines

Background

Sensible media reporting of suicide is a population-based suicide prevention strategy. However, the quality of media reporting of suicide has not been assessed in Nepal.

Objectives

We aimed to assess the newspaper reporting status of suicide in Nepal with reference to World Health Organization (WHO) media guidelines for suicide reporting.

Method

We retrospectively searched eight major newspapers in Nepal between January 2020 and May 2021 and assessed 167 news reports against WHO suicide reporting guidelines.

Results

Potentially harmful characteristics were found to be reported in both the title and main text of the reports. About half of them mentioned sex (48.5%) and 38.3% mentioned the location of suicide in the title. Of the 167 reports, 74.3%, 95.2%, 34.7%, 92.2%, 98.8%, and 52.7% mentioned the name, sex, occupation, method of suicide, the location of suicide, and life events, respectively, in their main content. On the other hand, only 6% and 2.4% of reports mentioned linkage of suicides with mental illness and substance abuse, respectively. While lesser than 1% of reports narrated educative information regarding suicide prevention, none mentioned contact information for help-seeking for the vulnerable.

Conclusion

Newspaper reporting of suicide in Nepal poorly adheres to WHO guidelines, substantiated by the high presence of potentially harmful characteristics and negligible presence of potentially helpful characteristics.

Quality of media reporting of suicide in Iraq

BACKGROUND

Mass media has an important role in influencing the suicidal behavior of the general population. However, the quality of news reporting of suicide has not been assessed in Iraq.

AIM

We aimed to assess the quality of news reports in Iraq while reporting the suicidal behaviors.

METHODS

The search was done on Google in November and December 2020 with the search term 'suicide news in Iraq' and accessible news reports distributed in Kurdish, Arabic, and English languages were taken out. We scrutinized the news reports to identify the reporting characteristics and compared them with the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines.

RESULTS

A total of 130 news reports were analyzed; among them 23.8% were Kurdish, 63.8% were Arabic, and 12.3% were in the English language. About 31.5% of the reports mentioned the name and 40.8% mentioned the occupation. The name of method was mentioned in 88.5%, mono-causality was found in about 34.6%, the term 'suicide' was mentioned in the headline in 94.6%, and method of suicide was mentioned in the headline of about 27.7% of the reports. Only 5.4% of the reports traced mental illness, 6.9% mentioned expert opinion, and none of the reports mentioned prevention program, and educative information.

CONCLUSION

The study revealed that news reports of suicidal behavior in Iraq are poorly adherent to the WHO reporting guidelines. Further studies are warranted to identify the responsible factors and culture-specific prevention strategies.

Changing trends in quality of media reporting of suicide in the community following a celebrity suicide in India

OBJECTIVE

Little is known about changes in quality of media reporting of suicide in the community following a celebrity suicide. Our objective was to compare trends in quality of media reporting of suicide, before and after the suicide of an Indian entertainment celebrity, against the World Health Organization suicide reporting guidelines.

METHOD

Online news portals of English and local language newspapers, as well as television channels, were searched to identify relevant suicide-related news articles. Comparison of reporting characteristics before and after the celebrity suicide was performed using chi-square test or Fisher's exact test.

RESULTS

A total of 3867 eligible news reports were retrieved. There was a significant increase in harmful reporting characteristics, such as reporting the name, age and gender of the deceased (p < 0.001 for all comparisons), mentioning the location (p < 0.001) and reason for suicide (p = 0.04) and including photos of the deceased (p = 0.002) following the celebrity suicide. Helpful reporting practices were less affected; there was a significant rise in inclusion of expert opinion (p = 0.04) and mention of suicide-related warning signs (p = 0.02).

CONCLUSION

Following a celebrity suicide, significant changes in the quality of media reporting of suicide were noted with an increase in several potentially harmful reporting characteristics.

Quality of newspaper reporting of suicide in Odisha, India, against the World Health Organization guidelines

BACKGROUND

Imbalanced media reporting of suicide may increase suicide risk among vulnerable individuals.

AIM

This study aims to assess the quality of suicide reporting in print newspapers of Odisha, a high suicide burden state in Eastern India.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

We analyzed all eligible media reports of suicide in selected English and local language printed newspapers of Odisha between October 1, 2019, and September 30, 2020. Quality assessment was carried out against international as well as local reporting guidelines.

RESULTS

A total of 248 news reports were analyzed. Majority of the articles reported identifying details (such as name [74.2%], age [60.9%], and gender [98.4%] of deceased) as well as a detailed description about the suicide event (suicide method [87.5%] and location [84.3%]). More than half (54.8%) of the reports attributed suicide to a single cause.

CONCLUSION

Suicide reports in print newspapers of Odisha are poorly adherent to local and international suicide reporting guidelines.

Variations in newspaper reporting of suicidal behavior in the WHO-South-East Asian region

BACKGROUND

South-East Asia is a densely populated region, comprising of 11 low- and middle-income countries and contributing to 39% of global suicides. There are serious challenges to suicide prevention in the region such as lack of high-quality suicide data, underreporting and poor quality of media reporting. The current report aimed to assess the variations in newspaper reporting of suicidal behavior in the World Health Organization-South-East Asian countries.

METHODS

We analyzed the contents of nine research articles on media reporting of suicide, published from four South-East Asian countries (four from Bangladesh, three from India, one each from Indonesia and Bhutan) that used similar methods and presented results in a nearly similar fashion.

RESULTS

Personal identifying information of the deceased was very frequently mentioned in the newspaper reports across the countries. Suicide notes were reported more commonly in India (9.5-18%) than Bangladesh (4.2-7.5%) and Indonesia (9.5%). No educative material was found in any of the newspaper reports of Bangladesh and Indonesia while it was rarely reported in Bhutan and India.

CONCLUSION

Our findings from the four South-East Asian countries suggest that there are variations between the countries while presenting the news reports of suicidal behavior. These findings would help to formulate and regulate the media guidelines for the specific country.

Quality of online news reporting of suicidal behavior in Myanmar: Adherence to the World Health Organization reporting guidelines

BACKGROUND

Media reporting of suicide has an essential role in the suicidal behavior of the general population.

AIMS

The aim of this study is to assess the quality of online news reports of suicidal behavior in Myanmar against the World Health Organization (WHO) reporting guidelines.

METHODS

We performed a content analysis of all available suicide-related news reports published in vernacular online newspapers of Myanmar.

RESULTS

A total of 285 reports were analyzed, consisting of 87.4% suicides and 12.6% nonfatal suicidal attempts. Potentially, harmful information reported in the text includes the methods of suicide (100%), the word or term in Burmese related to suicide (89.5%), the name of the person (56.5%), life event (50.5%), and photo or suicidal person (17.9%). Meanwhile, helpful information such as prevention programs and the contact information for suicide services to the readers have been infrequently reported.

CONCLUSION

The study found that the newspaper reporting of suicide in Myanmar is grossly nonadherent to the WHO media guidelines.

Mental Health Issues in the COVID-19 Pandemic and Responses in Bangladesh: View Point of Media Reporting

Background: The negative impact of COVID-19 on mental health has been reported by media throughout the world, although this role is not well-understood in low-and middle-income countries (LMIC). We examined the reporting of mental health issues during the COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh and initiatives undertaken to support mental health reported from the viewpoint of media. Methods: We reviewed articles published in 10 local newspapers, including seven Bangla and three English newspapers, during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. News topics were identified through discussions among the team members, with searches across online newspapers and portals. Data extrapolated from newspapers were documented in an Excel spreadsheet. A mixed-method approach was used following a framework analysis for analyzing data. Recurring issues and commonly emerging topics were generated from the data. Descriptive statistics were applied for analyzing quantitative data. Results: Between March 2020 and March 2021, we have identified 201 reports on mental health issues including 45 reports (22.4%) focused on stress due to the associated financial crisis, unemployment and loneliness, 50 reports (24.9%) of 80 apparent suicides linked to family issues, disharmony in conjugal relationships, harassment, sexual violence, emotional breakdown, financial crisis, and stigma due to COVID-19.There were 77 reports (38.3%) concerning domestic violence during the pandemic. Twenty-nine reports (14.4%) referenced actions taken by different organizations to address mental health issues in response to the pandemic in Bangladesh. Conclusion: News coverage has the scope to highlight important issues that can emerge as a consequence of the COVID-pandemic, such as mental health, in a low resource setting. Capacity building of the media on the way to report mental health issues during emergency situations could be a useful strategy for more credible reporting on mental health issues during the COVID-19 pandemic for raising awareness of the public and policymakers about the negative consequences on mental health of the COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh. Adopting policies to support essential mental health care and promoting the local organizations to take timely public health measures will be imperative for averting the negative consequences of mental health due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh.

Newspaper reporting of suicide news in a high suicide burden state in India: Is it compliant with international reporting guidelines?

BACKGROUND

Mounting evidence points to a substantial link between detailed media portrayals of suicide and imitative suicidal behaviour. We assessed the quality of media reporting of suicide in Kerala, a high suicide burden state in India against the World Health Organization (WHO) reporting guidelines.

METHODS

We conducted a year-round content analysis of all suicide-related news articles in four (two local language and two English) of the most widely read daily newspapers in Kerala. We used a data extraction form, prepared a priori in accordance with the WHO reporting checklist, and coded each item based on the guidelines.

RESULTS

A total of 377 suicide news articles were retrieved. Harmful reporting practices such as reporting the name (93.9 %) and age (93.6 %) of the deceased, method of suicide (93.1 %), location of suicide (88.9 %), monocausal explanations (48.8 %), and including photograph of the deceased (37.7 %) were commonly noted. On the other hand, less than a fifth of articles complied with helpful practices such as including details of suicide support helpline (19.1 %) or a link with mental health issues (14.9 %). Local language newspapers displayed more frequent violations in reporting compared to English newspapers.

CONCLUSION

Media reporting of suicide in Kerala, India is poorly adherent to international reporting guidelines, with very little focus on educating the public. These findings point to the need for framing comprehensive media reporting guidelines for India and a collaborative approach to highlight the primary role of media in suicide prevention efforts.

Indian media professionals' perspectives regarding the role of media in suicide prevention and receptiveness to media guidelines: a qualitative study

OBJECTIVES

Crime reports of suicide incidents routinely feature in the Indian mass media, with minimal coverage of suicide as a broader public health issue. To supplement our recently published content analysis study, we undertook qualitative interviews to examine media professionals' perspectives and experiences in relation to media reporting of suicide-related news in India.

DESIGN AND SETTING

In 2017-2018, we undertook semistructured qualitative interviews with media professionals with experience reporting on suicide-related news. A semistructured interview guide was designed to initiate discussions around their perspectives and experiences in relation to reporting on suicide. Interviews were digitally audio-recorded and transcribed, and a deductive and inductive approach to thematic analysis was used.

PARTICIPANTS

Twenty-eight interviews were undertaken with media professionals in Delhi, Chandigarh and Chennai.

RESULTS

A clear role for media in suicide prevention framed around educating and informing the public was articulated by several participants and a majority of participants also reported concerns and anecdotal accounts that their reporting may negatively influence vulnerable people in the population. Nonetheless, a fatalistic attitude towards suicide was evident among several participants including dismissing or minimising concerns around imitation suicides. Several participants also expressed doubts around the quality of suicide helplines in India and were hesitant to add such contact details to their reports. Participants were largely very receptive to the idea of developing voluntary media guidelines for the Indian context, although doubts were raised around compliance unless additional initiatives were taken to engage media professionals at the highest levels.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings reveal the perspectives of media professionals operating in the Indian context and can be used to support constructive partnerships between media professionals and suicide prevention experts. There is a clear need for a genuine and sustained partnership between suicide prevention experts and media professionals at all levels.

Assessing Suicide Reporting in Top Newspaper Social Media Accounts in China: Content Analysis Study

BACKGROUND

Previous studies have shown that suicide reporting in mainstream media has a significant impact on suicidal behaviors (eg, irresponsible suicide reporting can trigger imitative suicide). Traditional mainstream media are increasingly using social media platforms to disseminate information on public-related topics, including health. However, there is little empirical research on how mainstream media portrays suicide on social media platforms and the quality of their coverage.

OBJECTIVE

This study aims to explore the characteristics and quality of suicide reporting by mainstream publishers via social media in China.

METHODS

Via the application programming interface of the social media accounts of the top 10 Chinese mainstream publishers (eg, People's Daily and Beijing News), we obtained 2366 social media posts reporting suicide. This study conducted content analysis to demonstrate the characteristics and quality of the suicide reporting. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines, we assessed the quality of suicide reporting by indicators of harmful information and helpful information.

RESULTS

Chinese mainstream publishers most frequently reported on suicides stated to be associated with conflict on their social media (eg, 24.47% [446/1823] of family conflicts and 16.18% [295/1823] of emotional frustration). Compared with the suicides of youth (730/1446, 50.48%) and urban populations (1454/1588, 91.56%), social media underreported suicides in older adults (118/1446, 8.16%) and rural residents (134/1588, 8.44%). Harmful reporting practices were common (eg, 54.61% [1292/2366] of the reports contained suicide-related words in the headline and 49.54% [1172/2366] disclosed images of people who died by suicide). Helpful reporting practices were very limited (eg, 0.08% [2/2366] of reports provided direct information about support programs).

CONCLUSIONS

The suicide reporting of mainstream publishers on social media in China broadly had low adherence to the WHO guidelines. Considering the tremendous information dissemination power of social media platforms, we suggest developing national suicide reporting guidelines that apply to social media. By effectively playing their separate roles, we believe that social media practitioners, health institutions, social organizations, and the general public can endeavor to promote responsible suicide reporting in the Chinese social media environment.

Quality of newspaper reporting of suicidal behavior in Maharashtra, India

Purpose

This paper aims to evaluate the adherence of media reports of suicide published in vernacular language newspapers against the World Health Organization guidelines.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors performed a content analysis of all suicide-related news reports published in the seven most widely circulated vernacular newspapers of Maharashtra. News reports published from April 2020 to May 2020 were included.

Findings

Among the 355 retrieved suicide reports, 39.2% reports were placed at a prominent position of the newspaper, 92.8% mentioned the name of a person, 93.8% mentioned the method of suicide, while 56.0% reported monocausal explanations for suicide. In contrast, 20.8% of news reports acknowledged a link with mental health disorders, while 0.3% news reports provided information about suicide prevention programs, and 0.8% mentioned suicide-related statistics.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to report content analysis of suicide reports from Maharashtra state, which is one of the most developed states in India and has high rates of youth and farmer suicides.

Online media reporting of suicidal behaviour in Ghana: Analysis of adherence to the WHO guidelines

BACKGROUND

Irresponsible media reporting of suicide is a potential risk for copycat suicide. There is a paucity of studies from sub-Saharan Africa on the quality of media reporting of suicide.

OBJECTIVES

We assessed the compliance of Ghanaian online media outlets with the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines for media reporting of suicide.

METHODS

We searched 10 local media outlets with strong online presence in Ghana, to identify suicide-related news reports from 2000 through 2019. We applied summative content analysis and chi-square (χ2) test to the data.

RESULTS

We included 288 news reports, of which 261 (90.6%) were completed suicides, 7 (2.4%) were attempted suicides and 20 (6.9%) were homicide suicides. Most of the news reports failed to comply with the WHO guidelines: 92.7% mentioned the specific method of the suicide act, 82.6% included 'suicide' in the headline and 55.6% included photos of the victims. The χ2 tests indicated that privately owned media outlets were more likely than publicly owned to post a photo of the victim, χ2(1) = 17.37, p < .001, and report the incident location in the headline, χ2(1) = 15.00, p < .001. However, generally, there were no statistically significant relationships between the quality of reporting and media outlet ownership. Each of the 288 reports failed to mention any of the potentially helpful features recommended by the WHO guidelines.

CONCLUSION

Regardless of the ownership of the media outlet (whether private or publicly owned), mostly, the online reportage of suicidal behaviour in Ghana deviates sharply from the international recommended best practice by the WHO.

Quality of media reporting following a celebrity suicide in India

BACKGROUND

Celebrity suicides have the potential to trigger suicide contagion, particularly when media reporting is detailed and imbalanced. We aimed to assess the quality of media reporting of suicide of a popular Indian entertainment celebrity against the World Health Organization (WHO) suicide reporting guidelines.

METHODS

Relevant news articles that reported the actor's suicide were retrieved from online news portals of regional and English language newspapers and television channels in the immediate week following the event. Deductive content analysis of these articles was done using a pre-designed data extraction form.

RESULTS

A total of 573 news articles were analyzed. Several breaches of reporting were noted in relation to mentioning the word 'celebrity' in the title of report (14.7%), inclusion of the deceased's photograph (88.5%), detailed descriptions of the method (50.4%) and location of suicide (70.6%); local language newspapers were more culpable than English newspapers. Helpful reporting characteristics such as mentioning warning signs (4.1%), including educational information (2.7%) and suicide support line details (14.0%) were rarely practiced.

CONCLUSION

Media reporting of celebrity suicide in India is imbalanced and poorly adherent to suicide reporting recommendations. Local language news reports display more frequent and serious violations in reporting as opposed to English news articles.

A Qualitative Analysis of Self-Harm and Suicide in Sri Lankan Printed Newspapers

Background: Media reporting may influence suicidal behavior. In-depth exploration of how self-harm and suicide are portrayed in newspaper articles in a middle-income country such as Sri Lanka is lacking. Aims: We aimed to explore how self-harm and suicide are portrayed in Sri Lankan printed newspapers. Method: Seven English- and Sinhala-language Sri Lankan newspapers were screened for articles reporting on self-harm and suicide (December 1, 2014 to January 31, 2015). A thematic analysis was conducted. Results: In the 78 articles identified for analysis, certain aspects were overemphasized (inappropriate behavior) and others underemphasized (alcohol and complexities of self-harm). Explanations of self-harm were one-sided and a suicide prevention narrative was lacking. Limitations: Another time-frame and inclusion of Tamil newspapers as well as social media and online publications would provide additional understanding. Conclusion: The study found an indication of simplistic reporting. Greater focus on prevention and a nuanced portrayal of self-harm could reduce stigma and imitative behavior.