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

Abstract

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.

Fidelity assessment of the suicide reporting guidelines in Korean newspapers

“…The overall percentage of articles speculating or jumping to conclusions (36.7%) was similar to the results of Creed and Whitley (34.8%) [ 23 ] and Utterson et al’s (30.1%) [ 26 ] studies. Similarly, the results for providing hotline information (1.4%) and educating the public (2.2%) aligned with the studies by Ramadas and Kuttichira [ 24 ] and Harshe et al [ 25 ], who found nearly zero cases for these guideline items. Contrary to other international studies that showed less than 30% of discordance in providing extensive details about the method, site/location, and suicide note, our findings showed much higher percentages of discordance with these items—68.2, 74.5 and 44.6%, respectively—in South Korea [ 16 , 25 , 26 , 37 ].…”

“…In the study by Ramadas and Kuttichira [ 24 ], 37% of cases ( N = 3270) included photographs of the deceased, the method, and the scene. Harshe et al [ 25 ] separated the visual contents section into three specific guideline items. Out of 708 cases, 20.29% had “a photograph of the victim,” 11.98% had “a photograph of the location” and 14.42% had “a graphical illustration to depict the suicide/location,” meaning that in total, 46.69% included some type of visual contents within the article.…”

“…They observed an increase in the percentage of guideline concordance following the development of suicide reporting guidelines in India. Harshe et al utilized the guidelines formulated by the Indian Psychiatric Society [ 25 ]. Having to see the increasing numbers of detailed news stories after a celebrity suicide, they expressed concern over the possible spurts of copycat suicide in India.…”

The quality of online media reporting of celebrity suicide in India and its association with subsequent online suicide-related search behaviour among general population: An infodemiology study

“…About 58 % articles used sensational language, 59.5 % articles mentioned suicide site, 17 % articles suggested possible cause for suicide which was not related to poor mental health. A study assessing the quality of suicide reporting in Indian print media found increase in prominence of suicide reports after the celebrity suicide ( Harshe et al, 2016 ). It speculated that the most likely reason for sensationalism in media reporting of suicide might be to enhance the readership.…”

“…There has been limited literature available assessing the quality of media reporting of suicide in India. Most of the studies assessed media reporting of suicide in general population, and only one study had focused on celebrity suicide specifically ( Harshe et al, 2016 ). However, that study took death of Robin Williams (Hollywood movie actor of US origin) as the reference event and was done about four years back.…”