Lim Jane Tze Yn, Cheng Qijin, Ng Yin Ping, Pheh Kai Shuen, Panirselvam Ravivarma Rao, Tay Kok Wai, Lim Joanne Bee Yin, Chan Wen Li, Amer Nordin Amer Siddiq, Zakaria Hazli, Bartlett Sara, Skehan Jaelea, Chen Ying-Yeh, Yip Paul Siu Fai, Shah Shamsul Azhar, Chan Lai Fong
Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, National University of Malaysia (UKM), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Department of Social Work, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Sha Tin, Hong Kong SAR, China.
Front Psychol. 2021 Dec 15;12:666027. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.666027. eCollection 2021.
Suicide remains an important cause of premature deaths and draws much media attention. However, unsafe reporting and portrayal of suicides by the media have been associated with increased risk of suicidal behavior. Current evidence suggests that media capacity-building could potentially prevent suicide. However, there are still knowledge gaps in terms of a lack of data on effective strategies for improving awareness and safe reporting of suicide-related media content. This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of a workshop conducted with members of the media community on the safe reporting of suicide-related content. An interventional single-arm pre and post pilot study was conducted on a sample of the Malaysian media community recruited through purposive and snowball sampling. The media safe reporting workshop was conducted by a suicide prevention expert with a media industry background. Thirty participants completed a self-reported evaluation questionnaire on their awareness and knowledge of reporting on suicide-related media content; before and after the interventional workshop. There was a significant difference between the total scores before and after the intervention, with a large effect size. Post-intervention scores were significantly improved in 8 items, namely those related to the reporting of: (i) the content of any suicide note; (ii) headlines with methods of suicide; (iii) headlines with the location of suicide; (iv) cases of suspected suicide despite the unconfirmed cause of death; (v) suicide news to cater to readers' interests; (vi) cause of suicide; (vii) details of the location of suicide; and (viii) the negative impact to media community when reporting suicide stories. In particular, there was an improvement in the majority of items for people from the media community with no lived experience of suicidal behavior. The media safe reporting workshop is a potentially effective intervention for improving awareness and knowledge measures relating to safe reporting on suicide among the media community, with a more pronounced effect in those without lived experience of suicidal behavior. Limitations in the sample size, generalizability, short-term evaluation, and lack of a control group warrant future larger, longer-term controlled, and more representative studies.
自杀仍然是过早死亡的一个重要原因，并引起了媒体的广泛关注。然而，媒体对自杀的不安全报道和描述与自杀行为风险的增加有关。目前的证据表明，媒体能力建设有可能预防自杀。然而，在缺乏关于提高对自杀相关媒体内容的认识和安全报道的有效策略的数据方面，仍然存在知识空白。本研究旨在调查与媒体社区成员举办的关于自杀相关内容安全报道的工作坊的有效性。对通过目的抽样和滚雪球抽样招募的马来西亚媒体社区样本进行了一项干预性单臂前后试点研究。媒体安全报道工作坊由一位具有媒体行业背景的自杀预防专家主持。30名参与者在干预性工作坊前后完成了一份关于他们对自杀相关媒体内容报道的认识和知识的自我报告评估问卷。干预前后的总分存在显著差异，效应量较大。干预后，8个项目的得分显著提高，即与以下报道相关的项目：(i)任何自杀遗书的内容；(ii)包含自杀方法的标题；(iii)包含自杀地点的标题；(iv)尽管死因未得到证实但疑似自杀的案例；(v)为迎合读者兴趣的自杀新闻；(vi)自杀原因；(vii)自杀地点的细节；以及(viii)报道自杀故事时对媒体社区的负面影响。特别是，对于没有自杀行为亲身经历的媒体社区成员来说，大多数项目都有改善。媒体安全报道工作坊是一种潜在有效的干预措施，可提高媒体社区对自杀安全报道的认识和知识水平，对没有自杀行为亲身经历的人效果更为显著。样本量、可推广性、短期评估以及缺乏对照组等局限性需要未来进行更大规模、更长期的对照和更具代表性的研究。
