Variations in newspaper reporting of suicidal behavior in the WHO–South-East Asian region

Arafat, S. M. Yasir; Menon, Vikas; Bascarane, Sharmi; Kar, Sujita Kumar; Kabir, Russell

doi:10.1093/pubmed/fdaa139

Cited by 16 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…A comparable form of news presentation was reported in other parts of countries like India (Menon et al, 2020). Recent reviews from WHO-South-East Asia also reported a nearly similar finding of media reporting in LMICs of the region (Arafat et al, 2020b(Arafat et al, ,2020c. Other studies also reported poor adherence in Bangladesh (Arafat et al, 2020d(Arafat et al, , 2019, China (Chu et al, 2018), Thailand (Marthoenis et al, 2020), and Indonesia (Nisa et al, 2020).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 63%

Quality of Newspaper Reporting of Suicide in Kashmir: Adherence to World Health Organization Guidelines

Shoib¹,

Arafat²

2021

Psychiatry

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Background: Sensible media reporting of suicide is one of the important prevention strategies. However, there has been no report assessing the quality of media reporting of suicide in Kashmir, India. Aim: We aimed to assess the quality of newspaper reporting of suicide in Kashmir, India against the World Health Organization (WHO) reporting guidelines. Methods: We searched the available contents in four English and two Urdu newspapers of Jammu Kashmir and assessed the adherence to the WHO media guidelines. We collected the reports between 25 January 2016 and 18 September 2020. Results: A total of 152 reports were scrutinized. Almost all the reports mentioned the name of the person and the method of suicide (99.34%), occupation (85.53%) of the person. The life events were mentioned in 35.53% of the reports. Among the reports, 38.82% explained suicide on the basis of the monocausality, and 3.95% mentioned suicide notes. Only 3.29% of reports had traced mental illness, and none of the reports mentioned evidence of substance abuse. Only three reports mentioned expert opinion, and none of the reports mentioned any research findings, statistics, prevention programs, educational information, and contact information for help. Conclusion:The study revealed that news reports of suicide in Kashmir adhere poorly to the WHO media reporting guidelines. Identifying information of the deceased was explicitly mentioned in almost every report while almost none of the reports mentioned educational information.Suicide is a major public health problem throughout the world. Media has a double-edged role (protective and harmful) on suicidal behavior of the general

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 63%

Quality of Newspaper Reporting of Suicide in Kashmir: Adherence to World Health Organization Guidelines

Shoib¹,

Arafat²

2021

Psychiatry

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“…[ 10 ] However, wide variations have also been reported among studies based on both inter- and intra-country. [ 18 ]…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quality of online news reporting of suicidal behavior in Myanmar

Marthoenis

Htay

Arafat

2021

Indian Journal of Psychiatry

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Background: Media reporting of suicide has an essential role in the suicidal behavior of the general population. Aims: The aim of this study is to assess the quality of online news reports of suicidal behavior in Myanmar against the World Health Organization (WHO) reporting guidelines. Methods: We performed a content analysis of all available suicide-related news reports published in vernacular online newspapers of Myanmar. Results: A total of 285 reports were analyzed, consisting of 87.4% suicides and 12.6% nonfatal suicidal attempts. Potentially, harmful information reported in the text includes the methods of suicide (100%), the word or term in Burmese related to suicide (89.5%), the name of the person (56.5%), life event (50.5%), and photo or suicidal person (17.9%). Meanwhile, helpful information such as prevention programs and the contact information for suicide services to the readers have been infrequently reported. Conclusion: The study found that the newspaper reporting of suicide in Myanmar is grossly nonadherent to the WHO media guidelines.

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“…A recent review from WHO-South-East Asia also reported nearly similar finding of media reporting in LMICs of the region . Other studies also reported the poor adherence in Bangladesh (Arafat et al, 2019;Arafat, Mali, et al, 2020), China (Chu et al, 2018), India (Arafat, Menon, et al, 2020;Menon et al, 2020), and Indonesia (Nisa et al, 2020).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

News reporting of suicidal behaviour in Nigeria: Adherence assessment to World Health Organization guidelines

Oyetunji

Arafat²,

Oluwaseyi

et al. 2020

Int J Soc Psychiatry

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Background: Sensible media reporting has been considered an important suicide prevention strategy which is an under-researched issue in Nigeria. There is a dearth of research assessing how the media has been reporting suicidal news to the general population in Nigeria. Aim: It was aimed to see the adherence of news reports to the World Health Organization (WHO) suicide reporting guidelines while reporting the events. Methods: We searched the published contents of 10 English newspapers of Nigeria and assessed the adherence to the WHO media guidelines for reporting suicide from January 2010 to December 2019. Results: Most of the reports (85.31%) mentioned completed suicides, 4.4% recorded suicides, and 9.5% recorded suicide-related homicides. The majority of the reports mentioned the name (85.6%) and profession (63.8%) of the person; the name of the method (92%) and life events (67.8%). The word ‘suicide’ was mentioned in the headline of 87.6% of the reports; the method was mentioned in the headline of 22.8% of the reports, and 31.7% of the reports referred to life events in the headline. Only 8.8% of reports had traced mental illness, 33.3% traced the warning signs, 2.8% mentioned evidence of substance abuse and very few reports mentioned educative materials. Conclusion: The study found that Nigeria’s online newspapers are poorly adherent to the WHO media reporting guidelines. Explicit descriptions of the person, methods, life events, and mono-causal explanations were frequently published. Negligible initiatives have been found to educate the general people in the reports.

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Variations in newspaper reporting of suicidal behavior in the WHO–South-East Asian region

Cited by 16 publications

References 21 publications

Quality of Newspaper Reporting of Suicide in Kashmir: Adherence to World Health Organization Guidelines

Quality of Newspaper Reporting of Suicide in Kashmir: Adherence to World Health Organization Guidelines

Quality of online news reporting of suicidal behavior in Myanmar

News reporting of suicidal behaviour in Nigeria: Adherence assessment to World Health Organization guidelines

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