title: PRINTQUAL - a measure for assessing the quality of newspaper reporting of suicide.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Many studies have demonstrated a relationship between newspaper reporting of actual or fictional suicides and subsequent suicidal behaviors. Previous measures of the quality of reporting lack consistency concerning which specific elements should be included and how they should be weighted.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To develop an instrument, PRINTQUAL, comprising two scales of the quality (poor and good) of newspaper reporting of suicide that can be used in future studies of reporting.
  
  
  METHODS
  A first draft of the PRINTQUAL instrument was compiled, comprising items indicative of poor- and good-quality newspaper reporting based on guidelines and key sources of evidence. This was refined by team members and then circulated to a group of international experts in the field for further opinion and weighting of individual items.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The final instrument comprised 19 items in the poor-quality scale and four in the good-quality scale. Following training, agreement between raters was acceptably high for most items (κ ≥ .75) except for three items for which agreement was still acceptable (κ ≥ .60).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The PRINTQUAL instrument for assessing the quality of newspaper reporting of suicide appears appropriate for use in research and monitoring in future studies.
authors.affiliation: <location>College of Medicine, Institute of Life Sciences 2, Swansea University, UK</location>
authors.forename: Ann
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: John
authors.affiliation: <location>Centre for Suicide Research, University Department of Psychiatry, Warnford Hospital, Oxford, UK</location>
authors.forename: Keith
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hawton
authors.affiliation: <location>College of Medicine, Institute of Life Sciences 2, Swansea University, UK</location>
authors.forename: Keith
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Lloyd
authors.affiliation: <location>Institute for Media and Communication Research, Bournemouth University, UK</location>
authors.forename: Ann
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Luce
authors.affiliation: <location>Centre for Population Health Sciences, University of Edinburgh Medical School, UK</location>
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Platt
authors.affiliation: <location>School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University, UK</location>
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Scourfield
authors.affiliation: <location>College of Medicine, Institute of Life Sciences 2, Swansea University, UK</location>
authors.forename: Amanda L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Marchant
authors.affiliation: <location>College of Medicine, Institute of Life Sciences 2, Swansea University, UK</location>
authors.forename: Phil A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.affiliation: <location>College of Medicine, Institute of Life Sciences 2, Swansea University, UK</location>
authors.forename: Mick S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Dennis
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D009524:Newspapers as Topic / Q000592:standards*; D013405:Suicide / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006113:United Kingdom
keywords: media; quality score; suicide