Media_Portrayals_of_Suicide

MATTHEW A. DESROSIERS Research, Ethics, and Scholarly Writing September 18, 2013 WEEK 3: ARTICLE REVIEW/CRITIQUE Media Portrayals of Suicide In recent years, there has been growing concern over the reporting by the media of those who die by suicide. Various groups, such as the Centers for Disease Control (1994), the World Health Organization and the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP) (WHO & IASP, 2008), have proposed recommendations. In addition, scholarly research has studied the impact of the media on suicidal behavior – that research recently confirmed that media attention can trigger copycat suicides. For example, Kunrath, Baumert, and Ladwig (2011) documented media reports of railway suicides in Germany affecting the subsequent number of railway suicides. Similarly, in Taiwan, (Chen et al., 2012) documented an increase in suicides using charcoal burning after the suicide of a popular young female singer using this method. Bale (2001), writing on behalf of Befrienders International, stressed the importance of collaboration with the media in order to advance suicide prevention. Bale discussed the work of Keith Hawton from the Center for Suicide Research at Oxford University in the United Kingdom, was commissioned by Befrienders International to review research examining the links between suicide and media coverage. His review resulted in several conclusions: First, reports and portrayals of suicide in the media can increase suicidal behavior, especially when those reports are emphasized (for example, put on the front page of a newspaper) and repeated; and when they describe the methods in detail (with the young and old at particular risk in this case). Second, changes made to the reporting of methods can help to prevent subsequent suicides. Third, positive benefits are found in giving information regarding crisis hotlines and encouraging their use alongside the article about a particular suicidal individual. Finally, the media often underreport the role of mental illness in suicidal behavior. Hawton’s review also suggested a series of practical considerations for dealing with the media. The first is to be realistic when working with the media: Suicides remain newsworthy; especially the suicides of celebrities, so these deaths are going to be covered by reporters regardless. Second, a media strategy should be developed for preparing and rehearsing official spokespersons in order to make the messages to reporters clear and simple. Finally, it may be useful to accept the help of prominent individuals to pass on appropriate messages. By collaborating with others, the attention of the media may be steered to topics that they can include in their articles. A series published Crisis on suicide and the media (Pirkis and Blood, 2001a, 2001b), reviewed studies on the reporting of suicide by the media in newspapers, television, and nonfiction books. From these studies, they concluded that there was, in fact, a relationship between suicidal behavior and the media’s reporting of suicide. They advocated that suicide reporting be done in a far more responsible manner than that which currently is being used. Pirkis and Blood also reviewed studies on fictional depictions of suicidal behavior. While the relationship between suicidal behavior and fictional portrayals of suicide (on television, in plays, and in songs, for example) was much less flagrant than in reality-based reporting, the authors determined that caution should nevertheless be taken by producers of plays and dramas that will be shown on television and in films. Pirkis and Blood noted that the influence of the Internet on suicidal behavior needs investigation as neither of their reviews examined the effects of the Internet. The role of the media, discussed among the young, concluded that the evidence suggested that they are indeed at a greatly increased risk of contagion from media reports (Gould, Jamieson, and Romer, 2003). They also concluded that educating producers and journalists about the risk of irresponsible reporting and about the proper ways to report about suicide could prevent subsequent acts of suicide. They further recommended, on one hand, that journalists and producers be educated in the very best ways to present suicide that are conducive to prevention. However, on the other hand, while acknowledging that there is an association between media portrayals of suicide and subsequent suicidal behavior, it has been pointed out that this association is relatively weak (Goldney, 2001). In his study, Goldney recommended focusing on the positive effect that media can have on suicide prevention. While it may be nearly impossible to reason any positive effect that the media can have when reporting on a suicide, there was a workshop conducted by The Department of Psychiatry in a Teaching Hospital on February 3rd, 2001. This workshop was designed specifically for journalists, with the cooperation of media and mental health professionals. It came out with a guideline about how to most responsibly report on suicide. Using this guideline, a pro forma guideline was also designed and developed for assessing newspaper reports of suicides. Every one of the suicide reports in the leading newspapers in Kerala, a state in the south-west region of India on the Malabar coast, were analyzed for one year prior to the workshop, the very next year, the second year, and for six years thereafter – using the fifteen item pro forma and whether each report was harmonious or not. Each item in the guideline (pro forma) was noted. Recently, three nations (Australia, Belgium, and Denmark) initiated awards, presented to the media, for responsible reporting of suicide (Dare et al., 2011). In reviewing the first set of awards, I counted six that went to television reporting, four that went to newspapers, two that were slated for the magazines, and two to books. However, not one of them went to Internet-only sources. Now, if we put the negative and positive aspects of media coverage aside, the Internet may have made much of what has been written about media guidelines irrelevant currently. In order to explore the role of the Internet in reporting suicides, I used Google and searched for the words “gay” and “suicide” – and obtained 85.5 million hits, an astounding number of entries. A search for “Tyler Clementi,” a gay student, who committed suicide in New Jersey after his homosexual encounter in his dormitory room was recorded by his roommate with a webcam and broadcast on the Internet, received 3.5 million hits alone. Earlier recommendations to avoid repetitive, ongoing, or excessive reporting of suicide in the news are not applicable to the Internet when there can be millions of entries even for individual cases of suicide. To further examine the relevance of media recommendations to the Internet, I researched (via Google News) and examined the first 20 news articles using the search terms “gay, lesbian, bisexual,” “LGBT,” “suicide,” and “bullying.” These search terms were selected because recent suicides and bullying in the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community) have received much media attention. Several of these news articles were from respectable news organizations (such as http://www.cbsnews.com and http://www.abcnews.go.com). None of the 20 sites examined had any references or links to suicide-prevention sources. The only icon sometimes available was to a Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/VetoViolence), which is not suicide-oriented and indeed had no link itself to any suicide-prevention resources on its homepage to a suicide-prevention portal. Media guidelines also recommend not presenting suicide as a tool for accomplishing certain ends. In the first 20 articles on suicide and bullying among the LGBT community, it was inevitable that each article presented suicide as the choice of gay and lesbian individuals who committed suicide after bullying and persecution by others. Often such articles on the Internet are also briefer than those in newspapers (which is opposite to what one might predict since Internet articles theoretically have no limitations on the length of written material), and so the entries were typically brief and did not explore or comment on the complexities of suicide. Little or no mention was made on other risk factors for suicide, which may have been present in the lives of suicides mentioned (such as a psychiatric disorder). Media guidelines also recommended not focusing on the positive characteristics of the individual who died by suicide. This is a good recommendation, albeit rather impractical for the Internet. It is common, perhaps even inevitable, that the deceased will be described in glowing terms after a tragic death or set of deaths. Every deceased person was a wonderful person, parent, child, or spouse, had no criminal record, was not an alcoholic or psychotic, did not physically or sexually abuse their children, nor was he or she guilty of domestic violence. Even if reporters knew this information about one or more of the decedents, this information would most likely be suppressed “for the sake of the family.” Additionally, at least on the 20 sites examined, the fact that the majority of suicides covered by the media with regards to bullying in the LGBT community are young may have contributed to their focusing on the positive characteristics. Another media guideline is to avoid glorifying the person who has committed suicide. Several celebrities have died by suicide, and their deaths were, of course, reported in the news. In other cases, celebrities commented on the deaths of others by suicide. For example, following the death of Jamey Rodemeyer, a 14-year-old boy bullied by his peers and accused of being gay, the singer Lady Gaga posted messages on Twitter concerning his death. One such tweet called for the creation of a law in honor of Rodemeyer (James, 2011). Another article discussing Rodemeyer’s death said that he was “quickly gaining a fame like that described by his idol’s [Gaga’s] songs” (Anon, 2011, p. 1). Additionally, TV host Ellen Degeneres mentioned Tyler Clementi by name in her Internet blog and stated “[w]e can’t let intolerance and ignorance take another kid’s life” (Hudson, 2010, p. 1). Such statements are problematic because they simplify the motivations behind and the contributing causes to an act of suicide – and because they glorify suicide by associating it with fame. In review of the literature regarding suicide among the LGBT community, several recommendations are applicable to the reporting of suicide on the Internet: Search engines should have links to suicide-prevention resources. Since it is impossible to control the millions of postings and the billions of comments and postings from readers after such articles appear, it makes sense to work with the search engines to automatically provide the suicide-prevention links. * Major information sources, such as Wikipedia, Encyclopedia Britannica, WebMD, etc., should have links to relevant entries and articles and to resources for suicide prevention. * Online news articles that refer to suicidal behavior should include references to crisis hotlines and encourage those who are thinking about suicide to contact them. Because of the nature of the Internet, it is unlikely that media guidelines regarding the responsible reporting of suicide are followed diligently by online news sources. It is thus imperative that recommendations appropriate for Internet use are developed, and that Internet providers, search engines, and others be encouraged to follow them. Reference: Kapur N, While D, Blatchley N, Bray I, Harrison K. 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