Harshe Devavrat, Karia Sagar, Harshe Sneha, Shah Nilesh, Harshe Gurudas, De Sousa Avinash
Department of Psychiatry, D. Y. Patil Medical College and Research Centre, Kolhapur, Maharashtra, India.
Department of Psychiatry, Lokmanya Tilak Municipal Medical College, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.
Indian J Psychiatry. 2016 Oct-Dec;58(4):443-447. doi: 10.4103/0019-5545.196704.
Suicide is a grave mental health problem in India, and suicide rates in India have risen over the past decades. Suicide reporting by the media is a common cause for spurts of suicides that may occur from time to time. The aim of the present study was to assess the change in trends in media reporting of suicide after a celebrity suicide.
Suicide by the renowned actor Robin Williams was selected as the reference case. The top three Indian daily newspapers published in English having the highest circulation as per the Registrar of Newspapers, Government of India report were selected to be scanned in the study. These were the Times of India - Mumbai edition, Mumbai Mirror, and the Daily News Analysis - Mumbai edition. The authors screened all news stories in the three newspapers within a 6-month period (3 months prior and 3 months post the date of the reference suicide case), and these news reports were evaluated as per the suicide reporting guidelines for media laid down by the Indian Psychiatric Society. The data were analyzed using Chi-square test and descriptive statistics where appropriate.
A total of 708 newspaper articles were identified on the basis of the guidelines mentioned above. Nearly 88% ( = 623) of the articles directly covered suicide while 4.09% ( = 29) focused on suicidal threats and 7.91% ( = 56) focused on parasuicide behavior. There was a significantly greater increase in the total number of articles printed after the celebrity suicide ( = 409) for all article types except teasers as compared to that before the celebrity suicide ( = 299). There was a significantly greater increase in front page news on suicide after the celebrity suicide ( = 0.0016), description of the method of suicide ( = 0.0221), and the mention of the suicide notes ( = 0.0002). Most articles after the celebrity suicide placed the blame on someone or the environment for the act ( = 0.0001).
A change in media trend toward reporting suicide was noted post a celebrity suicide, and it is important that media follow guidelines stringently when reporting a serious problem like suicide.
自杀在印度是一个严重的心理健康问题，且印度的自杀率在过去几十年中有所上升。媒体对自杀事件的报道是不时可能出现自杀激增的一个常见原因。本研究的目的是评估名人自杀后媒体对自杀事件报道趋势的变化。
选择著名演员罗宾·威廉姆斯自杀事件作为参考案例。根据印度政府报纸登记官的报告，选取发行量最大的三份英文印度日报进行研究扫描。它们分别是《印度时报》孟买版、《孟买镜报》和《每日新闻分析》孟买版。作者筛选了这三份报纸在6个月内（参考自杀事件日期前3个月和后3个月）的所有新闻报道，并根据印度精神病学会制定的媒体自杀报道指南对这些新闻报道进行评估。在适当情况下，使用卡方检验和描述性统计对数据进行分析。
根据上述指南共识别出708篇报纸文章。近88%（=623）的文章直接报道自杀，4.09%（=29）关注自杀威胁，7.91%（=56）关注准自杀行为。与名人自杀前（=299）相比，除预告外，名人自杀后所有文章类型的印刷文章总数显著增加（=409）。名人自杀后，关于自杀的头版新闻（=0.0016）、自杀方法的描述（=0.0221）以及自杀遗书的提及（=0.0002）显著增加。名人自杀后的大多数文章将该行为归咎于某人或环境（=0.0001）。
名人自杀后，媒体对自杀报道的趋势发生了变化，媒体在报道自杀这样的严重问题时严格遵循指南非常重要。
