Suicide Coverage in U.S. Newspapers Following the Publication of the Media Guidelines

Abstract

In 2001 several U.S. government agencies and health organizations, including the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, the American Association of Suicidology and the Annenberg Public Policy Center, published consensus recommendations for the media reporting of suicide. This study evaluated whether these guidelines were followed in U.S. newspapers articles on suicide published in 2002 and 2003. We examined articles featuring individual cases of suicidal behavior (N = 157) published in a nationally representative sample of 968 local and national newspapers. Our main finding is that U.S. newspaper suicide coverage did not consistently reflect the influence of the media guidelines in the two years following their publication. On the positive side, a minority (19%) of stories included inappropriate imagery. On the negative side, suicide stories often detailed suicide method (56% of stories) and location (58%) but rarely provided information about warning signs and risk factors (1% of stories), the role of depression (4%), the role of alcohol (2%), and prevention resources (6%). Our findings, together with previous evidence, suggest the need for sustained dialogue and collaboration with the media about the responsible reporting of suicide.