Media Reporting On Suicides

Media Reporting On Suicides
Name
Course
College
October 12, 2012
Media Reporting On Suicides
The media fraternity can play a very pivotal role in educating the general public on the likely causes of suicides and how to prevent them. Moreover, the media has the responsibility to expound on other factors surrounding the suicide obscurity such as the warning signs, trends in the rates of suicide and the most recent advancement in curbing this social malady (Stack, 2008). On the same note, the media can exploit the opportunity to inform the viewers on the prospects of preventing suicide before its occurrence. Although media stories related to individual death by suicide can be remarkable, the media must cover them responsibly as they have the latent to harm the public in adverse ways. Indeed, research carried out by Hassan, (2009) established that the manner in which the media covers suicide cases can either increase or decrease the suicide rates.
Fekete & Schmidtke, (2007), uncovered that over 90% of the suicide victims suffer from psychiatric illness before their demise. Often such cases are not diagnosed because the symptoms might take root over a long time period. The two major disorders associated with suicidal people include mood disorders and substance misuse (Hassan, 2009). In the case where a person has mood disorders and is abusing drugs the probability of committing suicide is very high. Suicide cases are commonly found amongst young adults and the teens (Sonneck & Nagel-Kuess, 2004). Research has proven that in the cases of open antagonism, anxiety or confrontation on individuals who are going through depression pushes them towards suicide. Hence, the media is cautioned to use subtle language which is not suggestive or alluring luring the susceptible victims towards suicide.
The manner in which the media outlets describe suicide to the public in news can garner a concept known as suicide contagion or the copy cat mentality (Fekete & Schmidtke, 2007). Scientists suggest that unintentionally romanticizing suicide or even idealizing the people who terminate their own lives can act as a catalyst to potential suicidal populace. Some news outlets portray suicide in an heroic manner, for instance an employee who falls from the storey building for being oppressed by his seniors could be depicted as heroic as a way of passing “message across” and this inadvertently portrays suicide as a gallant act of boldness and could stir more suicidal cases with people who identify with the victim in the case.
Media also goes a step further to expose the methods used in committing suicide such as overdose, jumping off the cliff, using a rope and this offers...