Department of Social Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK.
Department of Media and Communications, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK.
Crisis. 2022 Jul;43(4):340-343. doi: 10.1027/0227-5910/a000778. Epub 2021 May 4.
Healthcare workers are at elevated risk for suicide; though it has yet to be studied, this risk may be exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. News media coverage of high-profile suicide is associated with an increased risk of subsequent suicides. No analysis has yet been published of US media practices for reporting on healthcare worker suicides during the pandemic. The researchers aimed to evaluate pandemic-era media practices by investigating adherence to best-practice suicide reporting guidelines in coverage of Dr. Lorna Breen's death. The researchers conducted a content analysis of all unique articles by top outlets reporting Dr. Breen's death between April 26 and 29, 2020, and scored them based on their adherence to the 15 best-practice suicide reporting guidelines. Every media outlet violated an average of at least 5 of 15 suicide guidelines in reporting on Dr. Breen's death; some abided by as few as 2 of 15 recommended guidelines. Seven of 15 guidelines were adhered to by fewer than one third of articles. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline number, notably easy to include, appeared in only 75% of articles. The researchers were limited to reviewing media coverage of one specific instance of COVID-era healthcare worker suicide, making these findings applicable as a prominent case study rather than forming a generalizable claim about suicide reporting during the pandemic or about reporting on healthcare suicides. These violations highlight a range of opportunities to improve suicide prevention in the media, which has a responsibility to ensure reporting does not exacerbate the risk of suicide. Improved adherence to these guidelines could reduce harm for healthcare workers during the pandemic.
医护人员自杀的风险较高；虽然尚未对此进行研究，但这种风险可能因 COVID-19 大流行而加剧。新闻媒体对知名自杀事件的报道与随后自杀风险增加有关。目前尚未对美国媒体在大流行期间报道医护人员自杀事件的做法进行分析。研究人员旨在通过调查在报道洛娜·布林医生之死时对最佳实践自杀报告准则的遵守情况，来评估大流行时期的媒体做法。研究人员对 2020 年 4 月 26 日至 29 日期间报道布林医生之死的顶级媒体的所有独特文章进行了内容分析，并根据其对 15 项最佳实践自杀报告准则的遵守程度进行了评分。在报道布林医生之死时，每个媒体都平均违反了至少 15 项自杀准则中的 5 项；有些媒体遵守的准则只有 15 项中建议的准则的 2 项。在 15 项准则中，只有不到三分之一的文章遵守了 7 项准则。值得注意的是，很容易包含的国家自杀预防热线号码仅出现在 75%的文章中。研究人员仅限于审查大流行期间特定的医护人员自杀案例的媒体报道，因此这些发现仅作为一个突出的案例研究适用，而不能形成关于大流行期间自杀报告或关于医护人员自杀报告的普遍说法。这些违规行为突显了媒体在预防自杀方面有一系列改进的机会，媒体有责任确保其报道不会加剧自杀风险。更好地遵守这些准则可以减少大流行期间医护人员的伤害。
