• Home
• Q and A
• Understanding Suicide
• Links
• Contact Us
• Guestbook

• Latest Updates

• Teen Suicide Statictics

• Help for self harm and cutting

• Psychological and physiological warning signs

• Cognitive behavior therapy
• Medication

• Clinical Depression
• Bipolar depression
• Teenage Depression

• Binge Drinking
• Teenage Alcohol Disorder

• Strategies for change
• Techique of problem solving

• Strategies for building confidence
• Strategies for building self esteem

• Understanding panic attacks
• Symptoms
• Overcoming panic attacks

• Developing coping strategies
• Learned optimism

• Media advice
• Downloadable resources for students

• Contribute Financially
• Contribute with your time

The World Health Organization have pointed out that the media play a significant role in suicide and in how they influence the public's understanding and interpretation of suicidal behaviour.They strongly influence   community studies  attitudes  beliefs and behaviour and play a vital role in politics  economics and social practice.  Because of that, the media can play a substantial role in suicide prevention rather than suicide contagion. Just this week in early summer sunshine,a large group of young people from Bridgend Youth Council  have gone to London to meet with the Press Commission and protest about the manner in which the media have reported the past twenty suicides in Bridgend, a wealthy and prosperous town in South Glamorgen.

The press have been instrumental according to the Youth Council, in stigmatizing

Bridgend as a "suicide town"  which in fact it is not. In my own view the media  are taking over the role of the coroner  in the inaccurate  reporting of many of these young deaths. A suicide is only a suicide when the coroner finds objective evidence that the young person intended to die. Most young  completed "suicides"   are in fact not  suicides at all, but death by narrative, or by asphyxiation or ligation, without intent.Would it not be more  ethical for journalists to  report it as a young death and leave it at that, until after the inquest ?There is much scientific research in psychology to show the impact of  negative suicide reporting and its role in causing suicidal contagion and suicide by imitation.

Overall the WHO report that  there is enough evidence to suggest that some forms of non-fictional newspaper and television coverage of suicide are associated with  a statistically  significant excess of suicide.Nevertheless, the majority of completed suicides are never reported by media, when the decision is taken by one person in one place at one time, for the reason that it probably makes good news.Suicide is often newsworthy material; and the media have a right to report it. However, those that are reported usually have some atypical pattern associated with it. But does this justify the reporting of it in the first place? To report these young deaths as suicides is not helpful to the families concerned and to the negative psychological effect  it has on the young persons peers and the close community where they live. It simply perpetuates misinformation about suicide.Conversely, certain types of coverage may help to prevent imitation of the suicidal behaviour.Repeated and continual coverage of suicide might make the idea of suicide seem "normal" and an acceptable way of thinking in vulnerable young people and older adults.

Reporting of suicide in an appropriate, accurate and potentially  helpful manner by enlightened media can prevent tragic loss of lives by suicide.

Reliable sources of information on suicide mortality can be obtained form a number of agencies around the world. The WHO data bank   contains data starting form 1950, by age and gender. Other agencies that may provide information are United Nations Childrens Fund,(UNICEF) (UNIFEM) and the International Clinical Epidemiology Network (INCLEN). The number of suicides is often underestimated. The extent of underestimation varies from country to country depending on the ways in which suicide is ascertained. Other reasons for the underestimation of suicide include stigma, social and political factors and insurance regulations,which means that some suicides may be reported  under the guise of accidents or death from undetermined causes. Comparisons made between suicide from various countries are frequently imprecise and misleading. It has to be understood that coronial decisions in various countries  concerning young deaths by what seems to be suicide will ultimately depend in what criteria is established in any given society as to what constitutes suicide. Suicide deaths are normally reported as deaths per 100,000 population. If reported rates refer to small populations( eg cities provinces or small countries)  their interpretation requires extra caution since just a few deaths may radically  change the picture overall. For populations under 250,000  crude numbers of suicides are generally used. Some rates may be reported in age -standardized form. This can exclude suicides under 15 yrs of age because of small numbers  but in many countries there is an alarming increase in suicides in this age group.

 HOW JOURNALISTS SHOULD REPORT SUICIDE

Specific issues that need to be addressed when reporting suicides include the following (WHO):

1. Statistics should be interpreted carefully and accurately
   
2. Authentic and reliable sources should be used
   
3. Impromptu comments should be handled carefully in spite of time pressures
   
4. Generalizations based on small figures require particular attention and expressions such as "Clusters,"  or " suicide epidemic" m or " suicide town"  must be avoided as they destroy community and societal trust in the media
   
5. Reporting suicidal behaviour as an understandable response to social or cultural changes or degradation should be resisted.
   
6. Reporting of suicide among ethnic minorities and migrants should not be singled out for media speculation and highlighted as unusual as it further alienates these migrants from their community.

HOW TO REPORT ON A SPECIFIC SUICIDE

The following points should be borne in mind:

1. Sensational coverage of suicides should be assiduously avoided, especially when a celebrity is involved. The coverage should be minimized to the extent possible.What is to be gained from knowing that a celebrity has committed suicide? Would it not be more ethical to report that a certain celebrity has had a untimely death? Why refer to the specifics and techniques such as overdose and hanging? This serves absolutely no purpose at all.Every effort should be made to  avoid overstatement. Photographs of the deceased, of the method used and the scene of the suicide are to be avoided.Front page headlines are insensitive uncalled for, and  not  very commonsensical.
   
2. Detailed descriptions of the method employed and how the death was procured should also be avoided. Again what purpose or meaning does it have for the reader- simply none.It is sensational unethical and could also be illegal as a coroner has not at that stage been involved. So journalists need to establish a consensus of agreement on the facts of reporting keeping in mind that parents have  been tragically traumatized and do not  need reporters asking insensitive questions about their personality, alcohol consumption patterns and if there was a psychiatric history involved. Ask what or how would you feel if it was your son or daughter husband or wife?There is a time and a place for discreet and sensitive interviewing of victims relatives    but not the day or following days of the young persons death.References to tall buildings, railway lines, cliffs, personal details of their private lives must be avoided as it can trigger off a s contagion of further suicide acts and increase young people especially to risk.
   
3. Suicide should not be reported as unexplainable or in a simplistic way. Each one is, as I have said before on this site, highly complex and not the result of a single factor such as the towns infrastructure or a depression or a broken relationship,although they may have a possible contributory factor.It is usually caused by a complex interaction of many factors such as mental and physical illness, substance abuse, family breakdown disturbance, Interpersonal conflicts and life stressors.For Journalists to report that  a variety of factors were possibly involved would be more helpful.
   Suicide should not be depicted as a method of coping with personal problems  such as bankruptcy, failure to pass an examination, or sexual abuse.
   
4. Suicide should not be depicted as a method of coping with personal problems  such as bankruptcy, failure to pass an examination, or sexual abuse.
   
5. Reports should take account of the impact of suicide on families and other survivors in terms of both stigma and psychological suffering.
   
6. Showing news footage on national TV of a death and funeral in Northern Ireland last year when a suicide has been committed somewhere in England can only retraumatize the local NI families who have buried their son/ daughter just one year ago.This is cruel and unecessary. Permission should be asked for by the family involved - but does the end justify the means?
   
7. Conveying the idea that depression is associated with suicidal behaviour and that depression is a treatable condition.Better to clarify the position with Directors of Mental Health from the various Hospital trusts.

 Summary of what to do:

1. Work closely with local experts and health authorities in presenting the facts
   
2.  Refer to suicide as a completed suicide only if defined by the coroner after the inquest, otherwise describe it as a young death
   
3. Present only relevant data, on the inside pages.
   
4. Highlight alternatives to suicide.
   
5. Provide information on suicide prevention sites in that area and helplines also community support /statutory support services with telephone numbers.
   
6. Publicize risk indicators and warning signs.

Summary of what not to do:

1. Do not publish photographs
   
2. Don't report specific details of the method used
   
3. Don't give simplistic reasons.
   
4. Don't glorify  or sensationalize suicide
   
5. Don't use religious or cultural stereotypes or language
   
6. Dont' apportion blame to anyone.
   
7. Take advice from psychologists on how to report a young death either by hanging or overdose.