The impact of media reporting of suicide on actual suicides in Taiwan, 2002-05

Yip, Paul S. F.; Chen, Feng

doi:10.1136/jech.2010.117903

Cited by 35 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 30 publications

(21 reference statements)

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“…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). This relationship appears to be stronger for factual media reports Cheng, Hawton, Lee et al, 2007;Niederkrotenthaler et al, 2009;Pirkis & Blood, 2001a;Yip et al, 2006) than for fictional reports of suicide (e.g.…”

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

confidence: 79%

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

confidence: 79%

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

Milner¹,

Hjelmeland²,

Arensman³

et al. 2013

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“…Past research has found that after the Apple Daily newspaper began circulation in Taiwan, the United Daily News immediately increased reporting of suicide; and the China Times increased suicide reporting 1 year later (2004) (Chen et al, 2010b). We found that from January 1, 2003, to May 1, 2003, there were two, three, and seven reports of suicide published in the China Times, Liberty Times, and United Daily News, respectively.…”

Section: Mutually Influential Effects Of Suicide Reports From Differementioning

confidence: 83%

“…The reporting of suicide by the media has also been a focus of attention. The media have traditionally reported suicide in an exaggerated and overly detailed manner (Blood, Pirkis, & Holland, 2007;Chen et al, 2012), and numerous studies (Chen, Chen, & Yip, 2010b;Chen et al, 2010a;Chen et al, 2012;Cheng et al, 2007;Niederkrotenthaler et al, 2009;Pirkis, 2009;Pirkis, Blood, Skehan, & Dare, 2010;Tousignant, Mishara, Caillaud, Fortin, & St-Laurent, 2005;Yip et al, 2006) have shown that this type of reporting (especially of famous suicide cases) has a negative impact on the public and leads to a rise in the rate of suicide. In 1974, the sociologist David Phillips described the Werther effect, which refers to copycat suicides that occur as a result of specific suicides described in the media (Phillips, 1974).…”

mentioning

confidence: 97%

Suicide Reporting on Front Pages of Major Newspapers in Taiwan Violating Reporting Recommendations Between 2001 and 2012

Chiang

Chung

Lee

et al. 2016

Health Communication

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Media reporting can lead to the acceptance of incorrect ideas and information by the general public, which in turn can impact behavior. A number of studies have found that suicide reporting in the media can lead to an increase in the suicide rate or copycat suicides. Therefore, the aims of this study are to (a) investigate front-page reporting of suicide in four major newspapers in Taiwan; (b) investigate violation of recommendations for reporting suicide by the four major newspapers in Taiwan; and (c) investigate the impact of important events and government policy on front-page reporting of suicide (i.e., the effect of the Apple Daily newspaper entering the market, and the start of media monitoring). We carried out content analysis of reports of suicide on the front pages of the four newspapers with the highest rates of readership in Taiwan (China Times, Liberty Times, Apple Daily, and United Daily News) between 2001 and 2012. We used the chi-squared test, chi-squared test for trend, and analysis of variance to analyze trends in violation of reporting recommendations and potential associated factors. We found that (a) suicide was most commonly reported as a front-page headline and as a whole-page spread by the four major newspapers in Taiwan, with many reports including photographs; (b) reporting of suicide by the four major newspapers in Taiwan frequently violated World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations for suicide reporting in the media; (c) following the entry of the Apple Daily newspaper into the Taiwanese market, reporting approaches to suicide by the other three major newspapers changed to more sensational photos and texts; and (d) monitoring of suicide reporting by the Taiwan Suicide Prevention Center appears to have been only partially effective. In summary, reporting of suicide by the four major newspapers in Taiwan could be further improved. Effective regulation of suicide reporting by newspapers could reduce the impact of this reporting on readers. In addition, regular assessment of observance of the WHO recommendations for suicide reporting by newspapers is an important part of suicide prevention.

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“…Previously, it has been speculated that differences in the mass media handling of charcoal-burning suicide in Hong Kong versus Taiwan may have contributed to the differences in the trajectories of the epidemic in those two countries [30]. In Taiwan, there was an explosive growth in media reporting of charcoal-burning suicides after 2003 [31], whereas the media in Hong Kong remained relatively calm. Although there have not been any findings concerning the relationship between media glamorization and incidence of charcoal-burning suicide in Japan, one of the reasons why a decrease in the charcoal-burning suicides in Japan was observed in the mid-/late 2000s might be that the media handling of the issue in Japan plateaued after the mid-2000s.…”

Section: Findings In Relation To Previous Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial and temporal evolution of the epidemic of charcoal-burning suicide in Japan

Yoshioka

Saijo

Kawachi

2016

Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol

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The impact of media reporting of suicide on actual suicides in Taiwan, 2002-05

Cited by 35 publications

References 30 publications

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

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

Suicide Reporting on Front Pages of Major Newspapers in Taiwan Violating Reporting Recommendations Between 2001 and 2012

Spatial and temporal evolution of the epidemic of charcoal-burning suicide in Japan

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