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Media reports on suicides impact vulnerable people to take extreme steps: Study
Updated On: 30 July, 2018 01:17 PM IST | Toronto | mid-day online desk
For the study, researchers from Canada, Austria, and Australia examined the relationship between potentially harmful and helpful elements of print and online media reports about suicid
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Journalists across the globe should take extra care while reporting suicides and suicide cases as providing details such as methods of suicides on the headlines can influence vulnerable people to take the extreme step, warns a study. "It is important for reporters and media outlets to understand that how they report on suicide can have a real impact across the population," said study co-author Mark Sinyor, a psychiatrist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and the University of Toronto in Canada.
The findings, published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal), suggest that exposure to media reporting on suicide may lead some vulnerable people to similar behaviour, a phenomenon called suicide contagion, and in some circumstances, may also lead to help-seeking behaviour. "When media reports include resources such as crisis services and messages of hope, it can have a positive impact on the public, and potentially help persons in crisis by reminding them that suicide isn't the only option and that help is available," Sinyor said.
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