Quality of media reporting following a celebrity suicide in India.
J Public Health (Oxf)
; 44(1): e133-e140, 2022 Mar 07.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-32939538
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Celebrity suicides have the potential to trigger suicide contagion, particularly when media reporting is detailed and imbalanced. We aimed to assess the quality of media reporting of suicide of a popular Indian entertainment celebrity against the World Health Organization (WHO) suicide reporting guidelines.METHODS:
Relevant news articles that reported the actor's suicide were retrieved from online news portals of regional and English language newspapers and television channels in the immediate week following the event. Deductive content analysis of these articles was done using a pre-designed data extraction form.RESULTS:
A total of 573 news articles were analyzed. Several breaches of reporting were noted in relation to mentioning the word 'celebrity' in the title of report (14.7%), inclusion of the deceased's photograph (88.5%), detailed descriptions of the method (50.4%) and location of suicide (70.6%); local language newspapers were more culpable than English newspapers. Helpful reporting characteristics such as mentioning warning signs (4.1%), including educational information (2.7%) and suicide support line details (14.0%) were rarely practiced.CONCLUSION:
Media reporting of celebrity suicide in India is imbalanced and poorly adherent to suicide reporting recommendations. Local language news reports display more frequent and serious violations in reporting as opposed to English news articles.Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Suicídio
/
Pessoas Famosas
Tipo de estudo:
Guideline
Limite:
Humans
País/Região como assunto:
Asia
Idioma:
En
Revista:
J Public Health (Oxf)
Ano de publicação:
2022
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
Índia