Do Australian media apply recommendations when covering a suicide prevention campaign?

Content analysis of reports of student suicide deaths in South African print medium newspapers

Purpose

The aim was to assess the quality of newspaper reporting of university student suicides in South Africa, using the World Health Organisation guidelines. Suicide among university students is a growing public health problem. The media has an important role to play in preventing student suicides by adhering to international best practice guidelines on ethical reporting of suicides.

Design/methodology/approach

This study conducted a content analysis of print medium newspaper articles in the 13 most widely read English language South African newspapers from the period of January 2017 to January 2020.

Findings

The initial search yielded a total of 28 news reports, of which 19 met this study’s inclusion criteria and were analysed using content analysis. The quality of reporting showed both potentially harmful and helpful characteristics. Poor adherence to international reporting guidelines were found in the description of method and location of suicide, sensational headlines, publishing photos of the deceased, linking suicide to criminality, simplistic narration of the life events leading to the suicide and use of sensational and potentially triggering language. No reports adhered to all reporting guidelines. Findings suggests that there are widespread potentially unhelpful practices in the reporting of student suicides and a need for suicide prevention experts to work with journalists to promote critical reflexivity and ethical reasoning when writing about student suicides.

Research limitations/implications

This study only included news reports published in English in the most widely read newspapers.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study of its kind to systematically examine media reporting on suicide in South Africa.

Calls to helplines in Australia following media reports of Robin Williams' suicide

OBJECTIVE

In the United States, there was an increase in calls to helplines following media reporting of Robin Williams' suicide. We aimed to determine whether this was the case in Australia.

METHOD

The helpline services Lifeline and Beyond Blue provided us with weekly data on calls received for 2013-2015. We conducted interrupted time series regression analyses to determine whether there was an increase in the average weekly number of calls received by each helpline in two periods after the story about Williams' suicide broke (1 week and 4 weeks).

RESULTS

We found strong evidence of an increase in calls to Lifeline (incidence rate ratio [IRR] =1.13; 95% confidence interval [CI] =1.02-1.25; p = 0.016) and Beyond Blue (IRR = 1.32; 95% CI = 1.09-1.59; p = 0.004) in the week after Williams' suicide was first reported. We found no evidence of higher than normal call volumes for Lifeline (IRR = 1.04; 95% CI = 0.99-1.10; p = 0.104) or Beyond Blue (IRR = 1.10; 95% CI = 1.00-1.22; p = 0.058) over the four weeks following Williams' death, however, suggesting that calls leveled out over this period.

CONCLUSION

Suicide prevention experts and media professionals must work together to minimize the negative impacts of reports on suicide and maximize their positive ones. In cases where the story is likely to receive extensive international coverage, it may be important for local media to encourage help-seeking.

Assessing Adherence to Responsible Reporting of Suicide Guidelines in the Canadian News Media: A 1-year Examination of Day-to-day Suicide Coverage: Évaluer la conformité au journalisme responsable en matière de directives sur le suicide dans les médias canadiens d'information: Un examen d'une année de la couverture quotidienne du suicide

OBJECTIVE

This study aims to examine routine day-to-day suicide reporting in the Canadian media, giving a descriptive overview of the tone and content of news articles. The primary objective is to assess adherence to responsible reporting of suicide recommendations in news articles about suicide. A secondary objective is to categorize these articles according to their focus. A tertiary objective is to compare guideline adherence across the different categories of articles.

METHODS

We collected news articles containing the keyword "suicide" from 47 Canadian news sources between April 1, 2019, and March 31, 2020. Articles were read and coded for their adherence to responsible reporting of suicide recommendations. Articles were also allotted into categories according to their focus and primary suicide discussed. Frequency counts and percentages of adherence were calculated for all key variables-both overall and by category of article. Chi-square tests were also conducted to assess for variations in adherence by category of article.

RESULTS

The procedures resulted in 1,330 coded articles. On the one hand, there was high overall adherence to several recommendations. For example, over 80% of articles did not give a monocausal explanation, glamourize the death, appear on the front page, include sensational language, or use discouraged words. On the other hand, there was low adherence to other recommendations, especially those related to putatively protective content. For example, less than 25% included help-seeking information, quoted an expert, or included educational content. Cross-category analysis indicated that articles about events/policies/research and Indigenous people had the highest proportions of adherence, while articles about murder-suicide and high-profile suicides had the lowest adherence.

CONCLUSIONS

While a substantial proportion of articles generally adhere to suicide reporting recommendations, several guidelines are frequently underapplied, especially those concerning putatively helpful content. This indicates room for improvement in the responsible reporting of suicide.

Increases of suicide rates in Kansas: results from 2009-2018

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the increase in suicide rates for Kansas residents, as well as quantify the difference in suicide rates between men and women across the State of Kansas.

Design/methodology/approach

To evaluate increases in suicide rates, a joinpoint regression analysis was conducted to calculate the annual percentage change in suicide rates. To evaluate differences between sex characteristics, a one-way analysis of variance was conducted.

Findings

Results of a joinpoint regression analysis found that the annual percentage change in the suicide rates of Kansas did increase significantly between 2009 and 2018. Furthermore, the rate of suicide increase among women was greater than the suicide rate increases of men.

Originality/value

The value of this study provides context to the suicide literature that could allow for better local and statewide policy decisions.