Research indicates that the way suicide is reported in the media can contribute to additional suicides and suicide attempts. Conversely, stories about suicide can inform readers and viewers about the likely causes of suicide, its warning signs, trends in suicide rates, and recent treatment advances. It has been found that “newspaper coverage of suicide is significantly associated with the initiation of suicide clusters” (Gould, Kleinman, Lake, Forman, Midle, 2014, p. 5). This effect is strongest for news stories about teenage suicides. “Repeated, detailed and explicit reporting on completed suicide might normalize suicide in the eyes of vulnerable young people, reducing their inhibitions against the modeled act” (Gould et al., 2014, p. 7). Research has found “that only stories about suicidal individuals, as opposed to other types of stories about suicide are associated with the occurrence of subsequent suicide” (Gould et al., 2014 p. 8).
In This Section You Will Find:
- Characteristics of print news articles strongly associated with suicide clusters
- Guidelines and sample media statements
- Recommendations and key messages for Media
PDFs
Resources
- Suicide and the Media
- AFSP Reporting on Suicide Prevention
- TEMPOS
A web interactive tool that allows media professionals, public health officials, researchers, and suicide prevention experts to assess adherence to the recommended reporting guidelines with a user-friendly, standardized rating scale. TEMPOS was developed through a collaboration with the County of Santa Clara Behavioral Health Services Department’s Suicide Prevention Program and the Stanford Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences’ Media and Mental Health Initiative.