This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: The way the media reports suicide can be important. It can bring an often-silenced issue into public view and draw attention to the social conditions that may have contributed to a death.
But the way these stories are told matters. Across South Asia, news outlets often publish a daily stream of reports on recent suicides. These stories are commonly produced by crime reporters, drawing on information from police.
They may focus on the details of a death, speculate about why it occurred and, sometimes, who should be blamed. "They make it horrifying to watch. I have mental health issues myself, and I don't want to be influenced by it," said a young adult research participant in Chennai, India.
Reports like this can include graphic descriptions of a method and present a single event as the reason someone died. This may leave readers with the false impression that suicide is an inevitable response to a difficult life event. A few years ago, our research published in World Psychiatry found that widespread media coverage of a prominent celebrity suicide in India was followed by a tenfold rise in Google searches related to the method of death.
This is not simply a matter of journalists making poor choices. Newsrooms operate under pressure to report quickly, attract audiences and compete in a crowded digital environment. In interviews with South Asian journalists, we found that stories on suicide were often considered highly newsworthy because they attracted public attention.
One senior media professional described the media environment as "a battle for eyeballs" in which "suicide is clickbait." Journalists also described tight deadlines, limited space and reliance on police as a primary source of information. The result is often a short report on a single death rather than a story that treats suicide as a public health problem with many causes. The World Health Organization advises journalists to avoid sensational coverage, unnecessary details about methods and simplistic explanations for suicide.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
