Media Guidelines for Reporting on Suicide: 2017 Update of the Canadian Psychiatric Association Policy Paper

Sinyor, Mark; Schaffer, Ayal; Heisel, Marnin J.; Picard, André; Adamson, Gavin; Cheung, Christian P.; Katz, Laurence Y.; Jetly, Rakesh; Sareen, Jitender

doi:10.1177/0706743717753147

Cited by 44 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 63 publications

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“…Our findings were consistent with international findings (Collings and Kemp, 2010;Skehan et al, 2013;Sinyor et al, 2018;Gregory et al, 2020) where participants acknowledged both positive and negative impacts of encountering suicide news. Participants appreciated that suicide-related news promoted awareness on the topic and could help to advocate for suicide prevention (Skehan et al, 2013;Sinyor et al, 2018;Gregory et al, 2020). In our study, one participant acknowledged that encountering suicide news had indirectly improved their understanding related to suicide.…”

Section: Impactsupporting

confidence: 91%

Malaysian Stakeholder Perspectives on Suicide-Related Reporting: Findings From Focus Group Discussions

Ng¹,

Pheh

Panirselvam³

et al. 2021

Front. Psychol.

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Media guidelines on safe suicide-related reporting are within the suicide prevention armamentarium. However, implementation issues beleaguer real-world practice. This study evaluated the perspectives of the Malaysian media community, persons with lived experience of suicidal behavior (PLE), and mental health professionals (MHP) on suicide-related reporting in terms of the impact, strategies, challenges, and the implementation of guidelines on safe reporting. Three focus group discussions of purposively sampled Malaysian media practitioners (n = 8), PLE (n = 6), and MHP (n = 7) were audio-recorded, transcribed, coded and thematically analyzed. Inclusion criteria were: English fluency, no clinical depression or suicidal ideation (current), no recent previous suicide attempts or suicide bereavement. Three major themes emerged: (1) Unsafe Reporting; (2) Impact; and (3) Safe Reporting. Most described current reporting as unsafe by being potentially triggering to media users and may contribute to contagion effect. Positive impacts identified included raised awareness toward suicide and its prevention. Unsafe reporting was attributed to inadequate awareness, knowledge, and guidance, lack of empathy and accountability, job-related factors, popularity-seeking, lack of monitoring and governance, and information source(s) with unsafe content. Majority agreed on how suicide stories should be framed to produce a safe report. The media community diverged on how detailed a suicide story should be. Safe reporting challenges included difficulties in balancing beneficial versus harmful details, social media ubiquity and its citizen reporters. Participants suggested these safe reporting strategies: stakeholder engagement, educational approaches, improving governance and surveillance, and guidelines revision. Most acknowledged the relevance of guidelines but were unaware of the existence of local guidelines. Implementation challenges included the dilemma in balancing media industry needs vis-à-vis safe reporting requirements, stakeholder engagement difficulties and social media regulation. There is poor awareness regarding safe suicide-related reporting across all groups. PLE and MHP were negatively impacted by current unsafe messaging which aggravated trauma and grief reactions. Postvention support gaps for mental health professionals were highlighted. Safe reporting promotion strategies should include stakeholder engagement to increase awareness on minimizing Werther and maximizing Papageno effects. Strategic re-examination and dissemination of local media guidelines to address new media issues, and effective surveillance mechanisms, are crucial in sustainable improvement of safe reporting practices.

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Section: Impactsupporting

confidence: 91%

Malaysian Stakeholder Perspectives on Suicide-Related Reporting: Findings From Focus Group Discussions

Ng¹,

Pheh

Panirselvam³

et al. 2021

Front. Psychol.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…The first were produced by the Canadian Psychiatric Association in a policy paper in 2009 (updated in 2017) containing 14 recommendations about content to include or avoid when reporting suicide. 24 The second were developed by a group of Canadian journalists in 2014 in a booklet known as Mindset , containing 14 “do” and “do not” type recommendations for reporting suicide. 25…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing Adherence to Responsible Reporting of Suicide Guidelines in the Canadian News Media: A 1-year Examination of Day-to-day Suicide Coverage: Évaluer la conformité au journalisme responsable en matière de directives sur le suicide dans les médias canadiens d’information: Un examen d’une année de la couverture quotidienne du suicide

Antebi

Carmichael

2020

Can J Psychiatry

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Objective: This study aims to examine routine day-to-day suicide reporting in the Canadian media, giving a descriptive overview of the tone and content of news articles. The primary objective is to assess adherence to responsible reporting of suicide recommendations in news articles about suicide. A secondary objective is to categorize these articles according to their focus. A tertiary objective is to compare guideline adherence across the different categories of articles. Methods: We collected news articles containing the keyword “suicide” from 47 Canadian news sources between April 1, 2019, and March 31, 2020. Articles were read and coded for their adherence to responsible reporting of suicide recommendations. Articles were also allotted into categories according to their focus and primary suicide discussed. Frequency counts and percentages of adherence were calculated for all key variables—both overall and by category of article. Chi-square tests were also conducted to assess for variations in adherence by category of article. Results: The procedures resulted in 1,330 coded articles. On the one hand, there was high overall adherence to several recommendations. For example, over 80% of articles did not give a monocausal explanation, glamourize the death, appear on the front page, include sensational language, or use discouraged words. On the other hand, there was low adherence to other recommendations, especially those related to putatively protective content. For example, less than 25% included help-seeking information, quoted an expert, or included educational content. Cross-category analysis indicated that articles about events/policies/research and Indigenous people had the highest proportions of adherence, while articles about murder-suicide and high-profile suicides had the lowest adherence. Conclusions: While a substantial proportion of articles generally adhere to suicide reporting recommendations, several guidelines are frequently underapplied, especially those concerning putatively helpful content. This indicates room for improvement in the responsible reporting of suicide.

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“…[4][5][6][7][8] The show portrays her suicide method in detail, the suicide as achieving positive results, and a simplistic depiction of the causes of suicide (i.e., the "Reasons" for her death are her mistreatment by others and their failure to help), all in contravention of expert recommendations for media depictions. [9][10][11][12][13] The show's premise is additionally noteworthy as the character literally "lives on" for the viewer and thus it also fails to realistically portray the finality of suicide. Therefore, 13RW functions as an unintended natural experiment in which potentially harmful suicide messages were abruptly disseminated to youth worldwide.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Suicides in Young People in Ontario Following the Release of “13 Reasons Why”

et al. 2019

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Objective: “13 Reasons Why,” a Netflix series, included a controversial depiction of suicide that has raised fears about possible contagion. Studies of youth suicide in the United States found an increase on the order of 10% following release of the show, but this has not been replicated in other countries. This study aims to begin to address that gap by examining the relationship between the show’s release and youth suicide in Canada’s most populous province. Methods: Suicides in young people (under the age of 30) in the province of Ontario following the show’s release on March 31, 2017, were the outcome of interest. Time-series analyses were performed using data from January 2013 to March 2017 to predict expected deaths from April to December 2017 with a simple seasonal model (stationary R 2 = 0.732, Ljung-Box Q = 15.1, df = 16, P = 0.52, Bayesian information criterion = 3.09) providing the best fit/used for the primary analysis. Results: Modeling predicted 224 suicides; however, 264 were observed corresponding to 40 more deaths or an 18% increase. In the primary analysis, monthly suicides exceeded the 95% confidence limit for 3 of the 9 months (May, July, and October). Conclusion: The statistical strength of the findings here is limited by small numbers; however, the results are in line with what has been observed in the United States and what would be expected if contagion were occurring. Further research in other locations is needed to increase confidence that the associations found here are causal.

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Media Guidelines for Reporting on Suicide: 2017 Update of the Canadian Psychiatric Association Policy Paper

Cited by 44 publications

References 63 publications

Malaysian Stakeholder Perspectives on Suicide-Related Reporting: Findings From Focus Group Discussions

Malaysian Stakeholder Perspectives on Suicide-Related Reporting: Findings From Focus Group Discussions

Suicides in Young People in Ontario Following the Release of “13 Reasons Why”

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