Though suicide reports have brought
awareness to bullying and mental illness in the past, I believe suicide
coverage in the newspapers should be banned until suicide guidelines are
properly adhered to or enforced. Suicide clusters first reared their ugly
head in the novel "The
Sorrows of a young Werther... in which the hero committed suicide." The
author Goethe's response is stated in the American
Sociological Review by saying his companions committed suicide by
gun use so they could bring his poems into actuality, and this spread
from a minority of people to a wide ranging community. In the
same review on
pp. 345 there is the title "influence
of Suggestion on Suicides," and table that shows the " [s]ize of the [s]uicide [r]ise after a [s]uicide [s]tory by [n]umber of [d]ays [d]evoted to
the [s]tory on the [f]ront [p]age of the New York Daily News[.]" By
observation table shows that the number of suicides skyrocketed to
"197.5" when the
suicide reports appeared on the first page of the newspaper for four days. Because the suicide rates went up
compared to the lower number of days represented before, one can conclude that
the longer the suicide report is on the first page of the newspaper the more
suicides will occur. In the same article it
is stated that according to "Madelyn Gould...[a] professor of Epidemiology
in Psychiatry at Columbia University, who has studied suicide contagion
extensively" "'Suicide contagion is real... [.]'" These events show that suicide contagion is an issue. Suicide
reports that don’t follow the suicide coverage guidelines can put mentally ill
people at a higher risk, those
reports can bring fame to the one who committed suicide producing more suicides, and those reports are an
overall concern to professionals if they are not followed.
Suicide reports can
put mentally ill people at risk if not carefully reported. In the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health the author suggests that people who struggle in life
and are mentally ill can be affected by information about other people who have
dealt with life’s issue’s through suicide, and this is called the “social
learning theory.” And the “social learning theory” is the framework in which
media has its affect on suicide. This information shows that instead of suicide
coverage being used to prevent suicide it could instead fuel it. Mentally
ill people can also be grouped in with the youth when it comes to suicide
reports. In a journal
Dr. Carr-Gregg is mentioned saying "Many young people ....don't believe in themselves, they don't have a basic
sense of meaning, purpose or belonging." The information about youths not seeing their significance in
life mirrors those who are depressed. According to a health guide depression can cause one to have "A bleak outlook…” If one who is recovering from mental illness sees frequent
mishandled coverage on suicide, than that can stunt their recovery and can fuel
their want to end their life.
Suicide
coverage in the news handled wrongly can give people a sense of desirability
for suicide. When suicide stories show a parents realization of their teens
pain after the suicide like in a The Globe and Mail article where
a parent “[writes] recently in a letter to
her lost son. “Please forgive me for not hearing.” This information can cause
misunderstood hurting teens to feel like their parents will understand them if
they decide on suicide. Though the passage in this article was to show recovery
of a mother after her son’s death, it can still produce desirability for
suicide from hurting teens. Suicide coverage handled wrongly produces
desirability for suicide when individuals who struggle with life see the fame
brought to others that had committed suicide. A CBC
News article quotes Cheung's
example of desirability for suicide when
it states that people act close to the
deceased giving them compliments, then the person is being lifted up and
this could cause an at "risk" person to contemplate suicide so they
receive similar attention.
A majority of
reporters agree that guidelines to prevent suicide contagion are only useful if
they are followed. “Patti Bacchus…chair or of VSB” is one of them, In the CTV News article “[a]fter
watching the coverage of [Amanda] Todd’s death” she brings up that her
“motion” stems from anxiousness
over a possible “contagion effect” from coverage that can effect young people.
She says that fascination on a person, repetition in showing pictures, and
putting the person on the first page on media brings fame to the person and can
bring along “risks…” Bacchus was
not alone with this idea and came across “several reporters who felt similarly
uncomfortable…” When it
came to the Amanda Todd story the suicide guidelines were relaxed, and I agree
with Bacchus that this can cause suicide contagion. I believe those guidelines are
there for a reason, and if those guidelines are relaxed then media goes back to
square one in dealing with the rise of suicide contagion. I completely agree
with Bacchus’s statement “It doesn’t make it OK if it’s putting kids at
risk.”An argument against suicide coverage guidelines is presented on a The Globe and Mail article when
someone suggests "These guidelines would in effect shunt suicides to the
corner of the cemetery, where they once used to be." Au contraire I
believe these guidelines have saved many lives, and when reviewing
the American Sociological Review the danger of
mishandling suicide news coverage is dangerous. Mishandled reports on suicide damage those
recovering from mental illness, increase suicide desirability, and are known by many to bring contagion. Suicide coverage has
done a lot in raising awareness, but as long as suicide coverage guidelines are
relaxed suicide coverage should not be in the paper until those guidelines are
adhered to and enforced. This link is a
list of guidelines for suicide coverage. What are your thoughts on
reinforcing these guidelines?
References
Anderssen,
E.(2011, September 24).Teen suicide: 'We're Not Going To sit in silence'. The
Globe and Mail. Retrieved from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health-and- fitness/health/conditions/teen-suicide-were-not-going-to-sit-in-
CTVNews.ca
Staff. (2012, December 3). Vancouver School
Board urges media to follow
suicide reporting rules. CTV News. Retrieved
Gregor, S. (2004). Copycat suicide: The influence of the media.
(n.d.). Retrieved
December 5, 2015, from https://www.psychology.org.au/Content.aspx?ID=1830
Mayer, A. (2013). Needed:
New approaches to defuse 'suicide contagion' among teens How
should we talk about
suicide? Mental health experts have some ideas. CBC
News. Retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/needed-new-approaches-to-
Nepon,J., Fotti,S., Katz, LY., et al. (2009). Canadian Psychiatric
Association –
Media Guidelines For Reporting
Suicide-quick reference. Retrieved December 6,
2015, from http://www.cpa-apc.org/browse/documents/341
Phillips, D. P.. (1974). The Influence of
Suggestion on Suicide: Substantive and Theoretical
Implications
of the Werther Effect. American Sociological Review,39(3), 340–354.
Retrieved from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/2094294
Sanger-Katz,
M. (2014, August 13).The Science Behind Suicide Contagion. The
New York Times. Retrieved from
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/14/upshot/the-
science-behind-suicide-contagion.html?_r=2
Smith, M., Saisan, J., & Segal, J. (2015, August 1).
Depression Symptoms and Warning
Signs. Retrieved December 5,
2015, from
Stack, S. (n.d.). Media coverage as a risk factor in suicide. Journal
of Epidemiology &
Community Health, 57(4).
doi:10.1136/jech.57.4.238
The Globe and Mail. (2012, December 7 ). GLOBE
EDITORIAL Teen suicide, contagion
and the news media. Editorial. The Globe
and Mail. Retrieved
from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/editorials/teen-suicide-
contagion-and-the-news-media/article6116592/
