Nossal Institute for Global Health, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Department of Psychiatry, Voluntary Health Services Hospital, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.
BMJ Open. 2019 Jul 18;9(7):e030836. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2019-030836.
Suicide rates in India are among the highest in the world, equating to over 200 000 suicides annually. Reports of suicides are a routine feature in major newspapers in India, and reporters may selectively present 'newsworthy' suicide stories. The aim of this paper was to systematically investigate whether mass media reports of suicides reflect the epidemiological data on suicide in a high suicide state in India.
We undertook a content analysis study to extract sociodemographic data on suicides reported among nine of the most highly read daily newspapers in the high suicide southern state of Tamil Nadu between June and December 2016. A total of 1258 newspaper articles were retrieved containing reports on 1631 suicides. Two-tailed binomial tests on aggregate frequencies assessed whether the sociodemographic characteristics of suicides in the newspaper articles were different to the population suicide statistics for Tamil Nadu.
We identified some statistically significant discrepancies between suicide characteristics in the population and the media. Suicides involving females (p<0.001), those aged under 30 years (p<0.001), separated or widowed males (p<0.001), unmarried females (p<0.001), those using methods with a higher case fatality rate (ie, hanging (p<0.001), jumping off high structures (p<0.001) and coming under vehicles (p<0.001) and those who were students (p<0.001) or working in the agricultural sector (p<0.001) were significantly over-reported relative to their occurrence in the broader population. Suicides involving men (p<0.001), those aged over 30 years and above (p<0.001), those who were married and suicides by poisoning (p<0.001) were significantly under-reported relative to their occurrence in the broader population.
The suicide characteristics in the print media were not entirely representative of suicides in the broader Tamil Nadu population, which may lead the general public to develop misunderstandings about suicide in their state. The discrepancies we identified will inform tailored suicide prevention education for media professionals.
印度的自杀率位居世界前列，每年有超过 20 万人自杀。印度主要报纸经常报道自杀事件，记者可能会有选择性地报道“有新闻价值”的自杀故事。本文旨在系统调查印度高自杀率州的大众媒体对自杀事件的报道是否反映了自杀的流行病学数据。
我们进行了一项内容分析研究，以提取 2016 年 6 月至 12 月在自杀率较高的印度南部泰米尔纳德邦最受读者欢迎的九家日报报道的自杀事件的社会人口学数据。共检索到 1258 篇包含 1631 例自杀事件的报纸文章。对汇总频率进行双侧二项式检验，以评估报纸文章中自杀者的社会人口学特征与泰米尔纳德邦人群自杀统计数据是否存在差异。
我们发现，媒体报道的自杀特征与人群自杀特征存在一些统计学显著差异。涉及女性的自杀（p<0.001）、年龄在 30 岁以下的自杀（p<0.001）、离异或丧偶的男性自杀（p<0.001）、未婚女性自杀（p<0.001）、使用致死率较高的方法自杀的自杀（即上吊（p<0.001）、从高层建筑物跳下（p<0.001）和被车辆撞击（p<0.001））以及学生自杀（p<0.001）或从事农业部门工作的自杀（p<0.001）的报道显著高于人群中的发生率。涉及男性的自杀（p<0.001）、年龄在 30 岁以上的自杀（p<0.001）、已婚自杀和中毒自杀（p<0.001）的报道显著低于人群中的发生率。
印刷媒体中的自杀特征不完全代表泰米尔纳德邦更广泛人群中的自杀情况，这可能导致公众对该州的自杀情况产生误解。我们发现的差异将为媒体专业人员提供有针对性的自杀预防教育。
