Department of Psychiatry, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, No. 201, Sec. 2, Shipai Road, Beitou District, Taipei, 11217, Taiwan, Republic of China.
Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. 2013 Mar;48(3):427-35. doi: 10.1007/s00127-012-0562-1. Epub 2012 Aug 10.
The impact of media reporting on copycat suicides has been well established in various cases of celebrity suicide. However, knowledge is limited about the spatial and temporal relationship between suicide death and media reporting over a long period of time. This study investigated the association of suicide deaths with suicide news in longitudinal and spatial dimensions.
All suicides during 2003-2010 (n = 31,364) were included. Suicide news in the study period was retrieved from Google News, and included all available news media in Taiwan. Empirical mode decomposition was used to identify the main intrinsic oscillation, reflecting both major and minor suicide events, and time-dependent intrinsic correlation was used to quantify the temporal correlation between suicide deaths and suicide news.
The media reporting of suicide was synchronized with increased suicide deaths during major suicide events such as celebrity death, and slightly lagged behind the suicide deaths for 1 month in other periods without notable celebrity deaths. The means of suicide reported in the media diversely affected the suicide models. Reports of charcoal burning suicide exhibited an exclusive copycat effect on actual charcoal burning deaths, whereas media reports of jumping had a wide association with various suicide models. Media reports of suicide had a higher association with suicide deaths in urban than in rural areas.
This report suggested that a delayed effect of copycat suicide may exist in media reports of minor suicide events. The competitive reporting of minor suicide events must be avoided and addressed by media professionals.
在各种名人自杀案例中，媒体报道对模仿自杀的影响已得到充分证实。然而，关于自杀死亡与媒体报道在长时间内的空间和时间关系的知识有限。本研究调查了自杀死亡与自杀新闻在纵向和空间维度上的关联。
纳入 2003-2010 年期间所有自杀案例（n=31364）。研究期间的自杀新闻从 Google 新闻中检索，包括台湾所有可用的新闻媒体。经验模态分解用于识别主要内在震荡，反映主要和次要自杀事件，以及时间相关内在相关性用于量化自杀死亡与自杀新闻之间的时间相关性。
在名人死亡等重大自杀事件中，媒体对自杀的报道与自杀死亡同步增加，而在其他没有显著名人死亡的时期，媒体报道略微滞后于自杀死亡 1 个月。媒体报道的自杀方式多样化，对实际烧炭自杀死亡有独特的模仿效应，而媒体报道的自杀与各种自杀方式广泛相关。媒体对自杀的报道与城市地区的自杀死亡有更高的关联，而与农村地区的关联较低。
本报告表明，在媒体对较小自杀事件的报道中可能存在模仿自杀的滞后效应。媒体专业人员必须避免和处理较小自杀事件的竞争性报道。
