Reassessing suicide coverage

The decision of whether and how to cover a suicide is a difficult one. Newsrooms are often reluctant to cover suicides unless they occur in a public manner or involve public figures. Such an approach, while erring on the side of sensitivity, can end up minimizing an important public-health problem and also foster misconceptions about suicide and depression.

The Portland Oregonian recently formed a task force to examine their paper's approach to this difficult subject. Oregonian public editor Michael Arrieta-Walden writes:

About five times as many Oregonians have died from suicide as from homicide this year.

You wouldn't get a sense of the more than 380 suicides through early this fall from reading The Oregonian.

Arrieta-Walden also notes that news coverage of suicide has real consequences:

A study of suicide rates and media coverage in six cities reaffirmed past research indicating that coverage can potentially influence other suicides, particularly among younger, vulnerable people.

Dan Romer, director of the Adolescent Risk Communication Institute of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, says the research findings, which are to be published in 2006, also emphasize that the way suicide is covered is critical.

That's why he and other experts do not say don't cover suicide; they argue for covering it with care and in ways that educate people about the causes. He says coverage should avoid glorifying or detailing the act and should not be sensational or prominent. Coverage also should recognize that most suicides involve people who are clinically depressed, and care should be given not to link it to a recent breakup or job loss.

Related: "Covering Suicide"--a Dart Center tip sheet.