Position statement and guideline on media coverage of suicide

"Dressed like boys, hair trimmed, a nalla kutti otherwise": construction of queer suicide in Indian online news media

Suicide is a significant newsworthy event, and the media often cover cases involving queer individuals. However, there is a notable lack of research on the quality of reporting of queer suicide cases within the Indian context. This article aims to address the existing gap in Indian online news media by investigating the portrayal of queer suicide via content analysis. Content analysis involves qualitatively condensing and interpreting data to extract key consistencies and meanings from a plethora of qualitative material. The newspapers considered span from 2005 to 2022, with data collection conducted in 2023. The author alone identified news articles on queer suicide and conducted the subsequent content analysis. The study reveals that reporting on queer suicide tends to divide queer couples into the gender binary and describes what it deems to be careless sexual conduct driven by obsessive queer love, which, in turn, is blamed for the suicide. Moreover, these reports often do the following: feature families who refuse to accept their children's identities, adopt dread-filled tones, and cite experts who provide incorrect information while engaging in victim blaming. As a result, the quality of queer suicide reporting in Indian newspapers is deemed substandard and offensive. To address this issue, the study proposes the need for training and curriculum updates in journalistic courses. This way, reporters can develop the skills necessary to sensitively and respectfully report on queer individuals in general and on queer suicide in particular.

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.

Assessing the quality of media reporting of suicide news in India against World Health Organization guidelines: A content analysis study of nine major newspapers in Tamil Nadu

OBJECTIVES

Suicide rates in India are among the highest in the world, resulting in an estimated 250,000 suicide deaths annually. How the media communicates with the Indian public on the topic of suicide has thus far gone without sufficient scrutiny. The objective of our study was to assess the quality of newspaper reporting of suicide-related news in India against World Health Organization suicide reporting guidelines.

METHODS

We used content analysis to assess the quality of suicide reporting against World Health Organization guidelines in nine of the most highly read daily newspapers in the southern state of Tamil Nadu between June and December 2016. Five of the nine newspapers under review were in the top 20 most circulated daily newspapers in the country.

RESULTS

A total of 1681 suicide articles were retrieved. The mean number of suicide articles per day per newspaper was 0.9%, and 54.5% of articles were 10 sentences or less. The vast majority (95.9%) of articles primarily focused on reporting specific suicide incidents. Harmful reporting practices were very common (e.g. a detailed suicide method was reported in 43.3% of articles), while helpful reporting practices were rare (e.g. just 2.5% gave contact details for a suicide support service).

CONCLUSIONS

We observed that a daily diet of short and explicit suicide-related news was served up to readers of newspapers. Attempts should be made to understand the perspectives of media professionals in relation to suicide reporting, and to devise strategies to boost the positive contribution that media can make to suicide prevention.

Celebrity suicide and its effect on further media reporting and portrayal of suicide: An exploratory study

BACKGROUND

Suicide is a grave mental health problem in India, and suicide rates in India have risen over the past decades. Suicide reporting by the media is a common cause for spurts of suicides that may occur from time to time. The aim of the present study was to assess the change in trends in media reporting of suicide after a celebrity suicide.

METHODOLOGY

Suicide by the renowned actor Robin Williams was selected as the reference case. The top three Indian daily newspapers published in English having the highest circulation as per the Registrar of Newspapers, Government of India report were selected to be scanned in the study. These were the Times of India - Mumbai edition, Mumbai Mirror, and the Daily News Analysis - Mumbai edition. The authors screened all news stories in the three newspapers within a 6-month period (3 months prior and 3 months post the date of the reference suicide case), and these news reports were evaluated as per the suicide reporting guidelines for media laid down by the Indian Psychiatric Society. The data were analyzed using Chi-square test and descriptive statistics where appropriate.

RESULTS

A total of 708 newspaper articles were identified on the basis of the guidelines mentioned above. Nearly 88% (n = 623) of the articles directly covered suicide while 4.09% (n = 29) focused on suicidal threats and 7.91% (n = 56) focused on parasuicide behavior. There was a significantly greater increase in the total number of articles printed after the celebrity suicide (n = 409) for all article types except teasers as compared to that before the celebrity suicide (n = 299). There was a significantly greater increase in front page news on suicide after the celebrity suicide (P = 0.0016), description of the method of suicide (P = 0.0221), and the mention of the suicide notes (P = 0.0002). Most articles after the celebrity suicide placed the blame on someone or the environment for the act (P = 0.0001).

CONCLUSIONS

A change in media trend toward reporting suicide was noted post a celebrity suicide, and it is important that media follow guidelines stringently when reporting a serious problem like suicide.