Long-term impact of celebrity suicide on suicidal ideation: results from a population-based study

Fu, King‐Wa; Yip, Paul

doi:10.1136/jech.2005.045005

Cited by 55 publications

(55 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…Nonetheless, it may be reasonable to postulate that media reporting could have an impact on suicide deaths months or even years later. 51,52 Therefore, increases or decreases in suicides shown here may underestimate the full impact of these or other media reports. Likewise, it may be that some elements of the media reports do have effects on suicides, but that these effects are downstream and cannot be detected with this design.…”

Section: Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 84%

The association between suicide deaths and putatively harmful and protective factors in media reports

Sinyor¹,

Schaffer²,

Nishikawa³

et al. 2018

CMAJ

144

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Suicide is a major, global public health issue that accounts for at least 800 000 deaths per year worldwide.1 A substantial body of literature shows that media reports relating to suicide can influence some people to end their lives. [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] This phenomenon, known as the Werther effect, is thought to occur via social learning, whereby a vulnerable person identifies with someone portrayed in the media and copies his or her behaviour. [5][6][7][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] Studies in Australia, Austria and the United States have identified potentially harmful elements of media reporting associated with increased rates of subsequent suicide. 5,6,21 These include repetitive reporting, front-page story placement, reports about suicides by jumping, suicide death (rather than ideation or attempts), suicide pacts, including the word "suicide" or the suicide method in the headline, accompanying photos, "monocausal" (single cause and effect) explanations for suicide, and reports that included misinformation ("public myths") about suicide. 5,6,21 However, these elements were not tested or significant in all studies.A second phenomenon, called the Papageno effect, has been proposed whereby protective factors in reports on suicide may lead readers to initiate adaptive behaviours, resulting in fewer suicide deaths.5 In Austria, newspaper articles depicting "mastery of suicide," in which people experienced suicidal ideation but found solutions other than suicidal behaviour, were associated with decreased subsequent suicides. 5Responsible media reporting is one of a limited number of strategies, which also include restriction of means and schoolbased awareness programs, that may affect suicide rates at a popu lation level. [22][23][24] Worldwide, numerous guidelines have been developed to advise the media on best practices. ABSTRACT BACKGROUND: Exposure to media reporting on suicide can lead to suicide contagion and, in some circumstances, may also lead to help-seeking behaviour. There is limited evidence for which specific characteristics of media reports mediate these phenomena.

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Section: Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 84%

The association between suicide deaths and putatively harmful and protective factors in media reports

Sinyor¹,

Schaffer²,

Nishikawa³

et al. 2018

CMAJ

144

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…First, since we are focusing on different types of data sources—Wikipedia and Reddit, we use z -score conversion as a normalization technique for the Wikipedia page views and Reddit’s SW posting activity volume. Further, the above observation in Wikipedia data, and the analyses that ensue, focus on observing changes over a two week window preceding and succeeding a celebrity suicide; this choice is motivated by our initial analyses and from the literature on Werther Effect [17]. …”

Section: Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These findings indicate that the effect varies in its persistence, peaking by about three days and leveling out by about two weeks [17]. The effect is also associated with the amount and prominence of media coverage, and it has consistently been observed to be prevalent in diverse cultures [43, 63, 16].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Detecting Changes in Suicide Content Manifested in Social Media Following Celebrity Suicides

Kumar

Dredze

Coppersmith

et al. 2015

Proceedings of the 26th ACM Conference on Hypertext &Amp; Social Media - HT '15

127

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The Werther effect describes the increased rate of completed or attempted suicides following the depiction of an individual’s suicide in the media, typically a celebrity. We present findings on the prevalence of this effect in an online platform: r/SuicideWatch on Reddit. We examine both the posting activity and post content after the death of ten high-profile suicides. Posting activity increases following reports of celebrity suicides, and post content exhibits considerable changes that indicate increased suicidal ideation. Specifically, we observe that post-celebrity suicide content is more likely to be inward focused, manifest decreased social concerns, and laden with greater anxiety, anger, and negative emotion. Topic model analysis further reveals content in this period to switch to a more derogatory tone that bears evidence of self-harm and suicidal tendencies. We discuss the implications of our findings in enabling better community support to psychologically vulnerable populations, and the potential of building suicide prevention interventions following high-profile suicides.

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“…Media guidelines for the reporting of suicide are commonly included in national intervention efforts because of the concern that insensitive descriptions may result in an increase in suicide deaths (Cheng, Hawton, Lee, & Chen, 2007;Fu & Yip, 2007;Pirkis, Blood, Beautrais, Burgess, & Skehans, 2006;Stack, A. MILNER ET AL. 2009). There is some evidence to support this perspective, as recent research papers identify an increase in suicide rates after damaging media reports (Chen et al, 2010;Chen, Chen, & Yip, 2011;Fu, Chan, & Yip, 2011;Gould, 2001;Hagihara, Tarumi, & Abe, 2007;Niederkrotenthaler & Sonneck, 2007;Pirkis & Blood, 2001aStack, 2005;Sudak & Sudak, 2005;Tsai & Cho, 2011).…”

Section: Media Reporting Of Suicide (N = 19)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Social-Environmental Factors and Suicide Mortality: A Narrative Review of over 200 Articles

Milner¹,

Hjelmeland²,

Arensman³

et al. 2013

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Suicide mortality in a population has long been thought to be sensitive to social, economic and cultural contexts. This review examined research on the relationship between social-environmental variables and suicide mortality published over a ten-year period. The main areas covered in the review included: the economy and income, unemployment, relationship status, fertility and birth rates, female participation in the workforce, religion, migration, location of residence, modernisation, media reporting, alcohol, and access to suicide methods. Results of the review indicated that rates of suicide mortality (deaths per 100,000 in a population) were sensitive to a wide range of social factors. There were relatively stable associations noted between divorce and unemployment with suicide mortality, while many of the reported associations between suicide mortality and other social variables (such as religion, fertility and female participation in the workforce) were influenced by contextual factors and time. These findings indicate the importance of considering the relationship between social factors and suicide as dynamic phenomena.

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Long-term impact of celebrity suicide on suicidal ideation: results from a population-based study

Cited by 55 publications

References 26 publications

The association between suicide deaths and putatively harmful and protective factors in media reports

The association between suicide deaths and putatively harmful and protective factors in media reports

Detecting Changes in Suicide Content Manifested in Social Media Following Celebrity Suicides

Social-Environmental Factors and Suicide Mortality: A Narrative Review of over 200 Articles

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