Military and civilian media coverage of suicide.
Military suicide has increased over the past decade and reports of Service Member and Veteran suicides receive media attention. Some methods of reporting suicide appear to cause a "media contagion" effect, potentially increasing suicide. This effect is explored in relation to media reports of both military and civilian suicides. To reduce possible contagion, recommendations for media reporting of suicides were adapted by the Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC). We assessed 240 military and civilian newspaper reports of suicide from 15 different sources for compliance with the SPRC guidelines. Nearly all reviewed articles violated at least one guideline. Results highlighted military news articles regarding Service Members included more pejorative language and discussion of failed psychological treatment. Conversely, civilian articles romanticized the victim and provided more details regarding the suicide. Further exploration of military suicide reporting bias is discussed as a need in future research.
University of Washington Tacoma, USA. amanda.e.stewart@us.army.mil
Amanda
A
Edwards-Stewart
Julie T
JT
Kinn
Jennifer D
JD
June
Nicole R
NR
Fullerton
D019983:Guideline Adherence; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D020452:Journalism / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008402:Mass Media / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008887:Military Medicine; D008889:Military Personnel / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D009524:Newspapers as Topic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011639:Public Opinion; D013405:Suicide / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D000092864:Suicide Prevention