Cheng Qijin, Fu King-wa, Caine Eric, Yip Paul S F
<location>HKJC Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China</location> <location>Department of Psychiatry, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY, USA</location>
<location>Journalism and Media Studies Centre, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China</location>
Crisis. 2014;35(2):74-81. doi: 10.1027/0227-5910/a000241.
The Hong Kong news media report suicide-related events more frequently and sensationally than Western countries. Little is known about Hong Kong media professionals' experiences and thoughts about such reporting.
To understand Hong Kong media professionals' experiences and perceptions of suicide reporting and whether the news media can be better engaged into suicide prevention.
We conducted three focus groups of journalists from both the Cantonese and English language news media. Data were analyzed using grounded theory methods.
We discerned three rationales from participants regarding their intense coverage of suicide-related events: (1) satisfying commercial competitiveness, (2) addressing social problems, and (3) responding to readers' interests. The first rationale was a dominant and vigorous motivating factor, and often influenced suicide reporting among local Cantonese media. Media professionals recommended engagement strategies targeted at frontline journalists, media managers, and general media consumers.
We see potential to involve news media professionals in Hong Kong as working partners in suicide prevention. To succeed, this effort requires engagement in a proactive, consistent, and sustained fashion.
香港新闻媒体报道自杀相关事件比西方国家更频繁、更耸人听闻。对于香港媒体从业者在这类报道方面的经历和想法，我们知之甚少。
了解香港媒体从业者对自杀报道的经历和看法，以及新闻媒体能否更好地参与到自杀预防工作中。
我们对粤语和英语新闻媒体的记者进行了三个焦点小组访谈。采用扎根理论方法对数据进行分析。
我们从参与者那里辨别出他们对自杀相关事件进行密集报道的三个理由：（1）满足商业竞争力，（2）解决社会问题，（3）回应读者兴趣。第一个理由是一个占主导地位且有力的驱动因素，并且常常影响本地粤语媒体的自杀报道。媒体从业者推荐了针对一线记者、媒体管理人员和普通媒体消费者的参与策略。
我们认为香港新闻媒体从业者有潜力成为自杀预防工作的合作伙伴。要取得成功，这项工作需要以积极、一致和持续的方式参与。
