Online media reporting of suicidal behaviour in Ghana: Analysis of adherence to the WHO guidelines (original) (raw)
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Online media reporting of suicidal behaviours in Ghana
2020
Background: Irresponsible media reporting of suicide is a potential risk for copycat suicide. There is a paucity of studies from sub-Saharan Africa on the quality of media reporting of suicide. Objectives: We assessed the compliance of Ghanaian online media outlets with the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines for media reporting of suicide. Methods: We searched 10 local media outlets with strong online presence in Ghana, to identify suicide-related news reports from 2000 through 2019. We applied summative content analysis and chi-square (χ2 ) test to the data. Results: We included 288 news reports, of which 261 (90.6%) were completed suicides, 7 (2.4%) were attempted suicides and 20 (6.9%) were homicide suicides. Most of the news reports failed to comply with the WHO guidelines: 92.7% mentioned the specific method of the suicide act, 82.6% included ‘suicide’ in the headline and 55.6% included photos of the victims. The χ2 tests indicated that privately owned media outlets were more likely than publicly owned to post a photo of the victim, χ2 1 ( ) = 17.37, p < .001, and report the incident location in the headline, χ2 1 ( ) = 15.00, p < .001. However, generally, there were no statistically significant relationships between the quality of reporting and media outlet ownership. Each of the 288 reports failed to mention any of the potentially helpful features recommended by the WHO guidelines. Conclusion: Regardless of the ownership of the media outlet (whether private or publicly owned), mostly, the online reportage of suicidal behaviour in Ghana deviates sharply from the international recommended best practice by the WHO.
Trends of online news media reported suicides in Ghana (1997–2019)
BMC Public Health, 2020
Background: Suicides have become headline news in most developing countries and often feature on front pages with accompanying graphic pictures on prominent news portals. There has been an increased reportage of suicides by the Ghanaian news media. This study aims to shed light on the trend of online news media reporting of suicides, and the epidemiology of media reported suicides in Ghana. Methods: An online search was conducted for news media reports of suicides committed in Ghana. One hundred and forty-two (142) news media reported suicides spanning 1997 to 31st July 2019 were retrieved and included in the analyses. Results: The victims of suicides were predominantly male (85.92%), young (mean age = 34.81 ± 15.71 years; range 10-86 years). Suicide by hanging (67.94%), the use of firearms (18.32%), and self-poisoning (8.93%) were the common methods used by the victims. There has been increased online news media reportage of suicides in Ghana in the last 3 years; 2017 witnessed the highest reportage of 30 (21%) cases. Marital or relationships and family problems were commonly cited as the reasons for the commission of suicides; mental disorders, and financial problems were also cited as immediate triggers of the suicides by close relations of the victims.
Suicide Reporting: An Analysis of Selected Nigerian Online News Sites (September2018-August2020)
International Journal of Research in Social Science and Humanities
In 2019, the World Health Organisation released a report which revealed that Nigeria had the highest suicide rate in Africa. Employing a mixed-method approach, the researcher examined suicide reportage in Nigeria, between 2018-2020, comparing it to the standards set by the World Health Organisation’s suicide reporting guidelines. A total of 227 articles and 3 editors were examined and interviewed. The findings revealed that although the editors stated that they were aware of and followed such guidelines, suicide incidents were reported irresponsibly. The research’s result indicates that journalists need to be re-oriented on suicide and reporting best practices.
A 2 Year (2019-2020) Analysis of Suicide Reports in the Nigerian Media
Proceedings of Global Public Health Conference, 2022
Suicide is increasingly becoming a public health concern. Reporting and portrayal of suicide in media may largely contribute to this. Gaining an insight into the pattern and possible risk factors may help in the design of effective preventive measures. The aim of the study was to generate a 2-year data of suicide reportage in media in Nigeria. This was a retrospective purposive Content analysis of all media suicide reportage in Nigeria between January 2019-December 2020. Data was entered into an excel spread sheet. Duplication was avoided. The statistical package for social sciences, version 22 was used for analysis. Frequencies and percentages of relevant variables were generated. Chi square and Fisher's exact test was used to assess associations. Significant value was set at p<0.05. One hundred and eighteen suicide deaths were identified. Mean age was 30.65+ 12.66 with highest rate among age 20-39 years (51.7%). Majority were males (73.7%). Commonest method used was pesticide ingestion (56.8%) followed by hanging (27.1%). Identifiable associated factors included financial challenges, academic challenges, and relational problems. Pesticide use was commoner among younger age group (p< 0.001) and female sex (p < 0.024). The common use of organophosphates which is used in pesticides may be due to the fact that it is a common household tool used to control insects and rodents in many low-and middle-income countries. It is easy to access and affordable, these coupled with social media reportage makes it a ready tool especially for those already contemplating suicide. The study highlights the current reality of suicides in Nigeria. It brings to the fore, the need for proper surveillance to drive a contextualized approach to suicide prevention.
International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 2020
Background: Despite the lack of attention, suicide is a major public and mental health problem in Indonesia. Research on how Indonesian newspapers portray suicide case has been lacking. Aim: To assess the quality of Indonesian online newspaper reporting suicide news and its compliance with the World Health Organization (WHO) mass media reporting guidelines. Methods: The content of suicide news reported in online newspapers was searched and scrutinized against the WHO suicide reporting guidelines. Results: Within the duration of 6 months, there were 548 suicide news reported. This consisted of 16.8% attempted suicide and 83.2% completed suicide. Approximately 90.3% reported age, 97.3% reported gender and 64.3% reported the marital status of the victims. Furthermore, 68% reported the methods of suicide in headline or title, 40.5% shown the picture of the victims and 56.6% shown illustration only, and 67.2% reported life event related to suicide act. Conclusion: The vast majority of on...
Changes in Reporting of Suicide News After the Promotion of the WHO Media Recommendations
Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 2008
Media recommendations on suicide reporting are available in many countries and in different languages. Hong Kong newspapers have been found to be noncompliant with WHO recommendations. A booklet containing WHO media guidelines Preventing Suicide: A Resource for Media Professionals, and an awareness campaign were launched in November 2004 in Hong Kong. Content analysis was then conducted to compare the reporting of suicide news before and after the launch. Results indicate that certain reporting styles were changed in accordance with the recommendations; namely, lessened use of pictorial presentations and headlines mentioning suicides. Most of the changes were attributed to the tabloidstyle newspapers. This study suggests that programs to promote media recommendations tailored for journalists appear to be efficacious in altering their way of reporting.
Asian Journal of Psychiatry, 2019
Background: Suicide is a major, however under attended public health problem in Bangladesh. There is dearth of research regarding how newspapers communicate it to the mass population. Objectives: We assessed the quality of online newspapers reporting of suicidal behaviors in Bangladesh against World Health Organization suicide reporting guidelines. Methods: We searched and scrutinized published contents of 8 Bangla online news portals against the World Health Organization suicide reporting guidelines retrospectively. Results: About 85% of the reports were connected to suicide, 93% reported single suicide, single person was involved in 82.50% of reports, and associated homicide was found in 7.50% of reports. About 96% of reports mentioned the name of the victims, 97% mentioned occupation, 96% mentioned method of suicide, 69% mentioned life events, and 64% reported certain mono-causality. Suicide in headline was found in about 94% of reports, 19% mentioned method in headline and 32% reported life events in headline. About 14% reports posted images of victims and no article provided any potentially helpful reporting practices. Conclusion: Media reports of suicidal behavior in Bangladesh in online portal were found to be poor quality when assessed against WHO suicide reporting guidelines. Details of victims, methods, life events and mono-causal explanations were being mentioned regularly. Substantial lacking has been noticed in approaches of educating the population and introducing preventive measures in the reports.
The gap between suicide characteristics in the print media and in the population
The European Journal of Public Health, 2009
Background: Programmes to educate media professionals about suicide are increasingly established, but information about which suicide cases are most likely to be reported in the mass media is sparse. Methods: We applied binomial tests to compare frequencies of social characteristics of all domestic suicides in the 13 largest Austrian print media in 2005 with frequencies of suicide characteristics in the population. Additionally, each reported suicide case was linked to its respective entry in the suicide database. We performed a logistic regression analysis, with presence of an article as outcome, and sex of the suicide case, age, religious affiliation, family status, conduction of an autopsy and location of the suicide as explaining variables. Time of the year and federal state where the suicide happened was controlled for. Results: Binomial tests showed that suicides involving murder or murder attempt were over-represented in the media. Reporting on mental disorders was under-represented. In the regression analysis, the likelihood of a report was negatively associated with the age of suicide cases. Foreign citizenship was a further predictor of a suicide report. The methods of drowning, jumping, shooting and rare methods were more likely to be reported than hanging, which is the most frequent suicide method in Austria. Conclusions: Suicide characteristics in the media are not representative of the population. The identified discrepancies provide a basis for tailor-made education of mass media professionals.
Perception of media in reporting suicide cases in Malaysia
2017
Article history: Received 1 February 2017 Received in revised form 22 May 2017 Accepted 4 June 2017 Available online 7 June 2017 Suicide is a public issue in Malaysia. Local data provides information about the rates, methods, risks and preventive measures of suicide, but little is known of how media influences suicide in this country. This study aimed to investigate the perception of media in particular online newspapers on suicide. Data were gathered from the online archives of 8 local newspapers. Thematic and content analysis were carried out. A total of 81 articles and 45 photos that met the selection criteria were retrieved and analysed. There were five main themes emerged from the searched articles; i) sensationalistic headlines and photos of real suicide ii) background of person attempted or committed suicide; iii) presentation of method of suicide; iv) reasons for or factors associated with the act of attempting or committing suicide and v) strategies or intervention related ...
Influence of media on suicide: proper coverage of media on suicide report
Journal of Korean medical science, 2014
Sir: Dr. Ji et al. (1) have conducted a study investigating the annual trends of charcoal burning (CB) suicide, 2000 to 2011, and to examine the risk factors of CB suicide in Korea. In the study, the proportion of CB suicides among all suicide deaths reported was 0.7% (84 cases) in 2007, and since 2008 it has rapidly increased to 7.9% (1,251 cases) in 2011. Among risk factors of CB suicide in the study, the robust influence of media report about famous Korean actor Ahn's CB suicide (adjusted odds ratio, 11.69; 95% CI, 10.30-13.23) was clearly found, strikingly the risk of CB suicide was almost 12 times higher after September, 2008 compared to the months prior, indicating that the profound negative role of media report increasing copycat suicide especially in vulnerable population (e.g., 15-40s, single, and male). I would like to add up useful information along with some issues concerning a huge role of media on increasing impulsive suicidality of human and regarding proper preventive strategy to minimize such negative influence of media reporting. Despite a positive impact of media on rapid and massive dissemination of information in a wide range of area such as science and health, such critical influence may also cause unwanted and negative results in aspect of public mental health. Most of the evidence to date for a copycat suicide effect of media report has been suggested to be indirect. However, there has been increasing evidence of copycat effect by media report today. According to studies funded by the Australian Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing, the presentation way the media reveal stories on suicide can have a direct influence on the public's perception of suicide and its related mental health issues (2). The impact of the media on suicidal behavior is in particular strong and dangerous upon media's detailed storytelling such as specified suicide method and way to access onto lethal material; especially, such influence is more direct and profound when the suicide story is reported, modified, or por-CORRESPONDENCE