Internet Searches for a Specific Suicide Method Follow Its High-Profile Media Coverage

2011 ◽  
Vol 168 (8) ◽  
pp. 855-857 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shu-Sen Chang ◽  
Andrew Page ◽  
David Gunnell
Crisis ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Amy S. Hedman-Robertson ◽  
Starr K. Sage

Abstract. Background: Increased suicides following media coverage of celebrities' suicide deaths have been documented in several countries. Recommendations for Reporting on Suicide were published to provide guidance for media professionals when covering suicide. Research indicates guidelines have been poorly followed. Aim: We aimed to determine whether the recommendations were similarly observed when studying two online news organizations' coverage of a celebrity's suicide. Method: In the 3 days following a high-profile celebrity's death, two US cable networks' news websites were studied to compare how the death was reported. Online articles were reviewed using a coding rubric organized by six themes and 21 coding categories. Results: Between the two organizations, 34 articles were published. Regarding the recommendations, neither source followed all of the recommendations, as measured in this study. Source A fared better in providing help-seeking information. Limitations: Only two news organizations were studied for a 3-day period. Online videos, print articles, and social media were excluded. Conclusion: The suicide of a celebrity received repetitive media coverage with little emphasis on prevention or help-seeking. The recommendations were not consistently followed by the two news websites included in this review.


2018 ◽  
Vol 64 (6) ◽  
pp. 536-544 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niall McTernan ◽  
Ailbhe Spillane ◽  
Grace Cully ◽  
Eimear Cusack ◽  
Theresa O’Reilly ◽  
...  

Background: International research consistently shows evidence for an association between sensationalised and detailed media reporting, and suicidal behaviour. Aim: This study examined the quality of media reporting of suicide and adherence to media guidelines in Ireland. Methods: In accordance with the criteria outlined in the media guidelines for reporting suicide, 243 media articles were screened and analysed for quality of reporting of two high-profile cases of suicide and two cases of suicide that became high profile following a period of intense media coverage that occurred between September 2009 and December 2012. Results: A minority of articles breached the media guidelines in relation to sensationalised language (11.8%), placement of reports on the front page of the newspaper (9.5%), publishing of inappropriate photographs (4.2%) and mention of location of suicide (2.4%), while no articles disclosed the contents of a suicide note. However, in the majority of articles analysed, journalists did not refer to appropriate support services for people vulnerable to, and at risk of suicide (75.8%) or mention wider issues that are related to suicidal behaviour (53.8%). Overemphasis of community grief (48.3%) was also common. Nearly all articles (99.2%) breached at least one guideline and 58.9% of articles breached three or more guidelines. Conclusion: Overall, adherence to media guidelines on reporting suicide in Ireland improved in certain key areas from September 2009 until December 2012. Nonetheless, important challenges remain. Increased monitoring by media monitoring agencies, regulators and government departments is required. Implementation should be conducted using a pro-active approach and form part of the curriculum of journalists and editors. The inclusion of guidelines for the reporting of suicidal behaviour in press codes of conduct for journalists warrants consideration.


2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (5) ◽  
pp. 1000-1035
Author(s):  
Ben Gaskins ◽  
Ellen Seljan ◽  
Todd Lochner ◽  
Katie Kowal ◽  
Zane Dundon ◽  
...  

Scholarship suggests the Federal Election Commission lacks adequate enforcement tools to deter those who would violate campaign finance laws. But can and do voters hold political candidates accountable for violating these laws? In this article, we employ two studies to empirically evaluate these questions. The first examines the extent to which media cover campaign finance violations, and how they do so. The second employs an experimental approach to test the effects of such media coverage on evaluations of political candidates, in particular whether knowledge of a candidate’s violation of campaign finance laws erodes voter support. We find that the media are more likely to cover campaign finance impropriety for high-profile offices, when criminal action is alleged, and for most serious violations. We also show that voters care about campaign violations, and certain violations lower voter support similar to other types of political scandal.


2020 ◽  
pp. 107780122093778
Author(s):  
Gwendolyn D. Anderson ◽  
Rebekah Overby

Rape myths perpetuate blaming survivors of sexual violence for their own victimization. Although research has explored how public and political discourse, current events, and media coverage of sexual violence impacts the well-being of survivors, few studies have examined it from the perspectives of participants as a significant event is unfolding. This study presents findings from semi-structured interviews with female, trans, and nonbinary identified survivors during the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings. We found most participants experienced the negative impact of rape myths, and victim blaming reactions from friends, family, and professionals, both initially and with renewed intensity during this high-profile political event.


2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (5) ◽  
pp. 378-388 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dong Ping Qiao ◽  
Andrew Jonathan Whittaker ◽  
Tong Zhang

2013 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
James P. Todhunter

Abstract The notion that national leaders use foreign policy actions for domestic political benefit is widely accepted in the foreign policy literature, but has only been studied with regard to foreign policy involving the use of force. Literature on third-party mediation has emerged separately and has not taken mediators’ domestic political motivations and constraints into account when explaining mediation occurrence and outcomes. Diplomatic efforts such as mediation should be appealing to leaders seeking to impress their domestic audience because it provides them with a low risk opportunity to appear competent to their domestic audience. While mediation is a regular occurrence in US foreign policy, its public visibility varies greatly. However, models of presidential media coverage suggest that media outlets are likely to pay a disproportionate amount of attention to presidents and their high level surrogates while engaging in diplomacy overseas. The article proposes that the higher the profile of the official an administration sends to mediate a crisis overseas, the greater the increase in the president’s approval rating. Additionally, the public’s attentiveness to foreign policy should condition the effect of a high profile mediator on presidential approval. As foreign policy becomes more salient to the public, the effect of a higher profile mediator on presidential approval should be greater. Empirical results support the argument.


Journalism ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 146488492110632
Author(s):  
Audrey Galvin ◽  
Fergal Quinn ◽  
Yvonne Cleary

Media framing helps to shape our understanding of the meaning of news events, often problematically. This study examines how this process interacts with the phenomenon of familicide-suicide, where a person kills one or more family members before taking their own life. A social constructionist analysis of the print media coverage of three high-profile cases in Ireland highlights framing and discursive patterns, contributing to an explanatory framework that is misleading and lacking in an evidence base. As well as a tendency towards broad and poorly supported claims-making, several primary causal frames are prevalent: mental health; financial debt; fall from grace; and ‘out of the blue’, whilst a domestic violence frame is notable in its absence. Coverage is found to be episodic in character, linked to dramatisation and more simplistic explanatory frames, rather than evidence-based analysis of potential causal factors for these incidents. Findings raise important questions for journalistic practice, regarding processes of selection and salience of sources contributing to overall coverage that is partial and biased, rather than an ‘objective’ representation of the social world.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Madeleine Clare Elish

As debates about the policy and ethical implications of AI systems grow, it will be increasingly important to accurately locate who is responsible when agency is distributed in a system and control over an action is mediated through time and space. Analyzing several high-profile accidents involving complex and automated socio-technical systems and the media coverage that surrounded them, I introduce the concept of a moral crumple zone to describe how responsibility for an action may be misattributed to a human actor who had limited control over the behavior of an automated or autonomous system. Just as the crumple zone in a car is designed to absorb the force of impact in a crash, the human in a highly complex and automated system may become simply a component—accidentally or intentionally—that bears the brunt of the moral and legal responsibilities when the overall system malfunctions. While the crumple zone in a car is meant to protect the human driver, the moral crumple zone protects the integrity of the technological system, at the expense of the nearest human operator. The concept is both a challenge to and an opportunity for the design and regulation of human-robot systems. At stake in articulating moral crumple zones is not only the misattribution of responsibility but also the ways in which new forms of consumer and worker harm may develop in new complex, automated, or purported autonomous technologies.


BMJ Open ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. e038087
Author(s):  
Brooke Nickel ◽  
Ray Moynihan ◽  
Alexandra Barratt ◽  
Juan P Brito ◽  
Kirsten McCaffery

ObjectivesThe use of more medicalised labels can increase both concern about illness and the desire for more invasive treatment. This study analyses the media’s coverage of an Analysis article in The BMJ which generated a large amount of high-profile international media coverage. It aims to understand how to better communicate messages about low-risk cancers and overdiagnosis to the public.DesignContent analysis of media coverage.SettingMedia was identified by Isentia Media Portal, searched in Google News and cross-checked in Factiva and Proquest databases from August 2018.MethodsMedia headlines, full text and open access public comments responding to the coverage on the article proposing to ‘rename low-risk conditions currently labelled as cancer’ were analysed to determine the main themes.Results45 original media articles and their associated public comments (n=167) were identified and included in the analysis. Overall, headlines focused on cancer generally and there was little mention of ‘low-risk’, ‘overdiagnosis’ or ‘overtreatment’. The full text generally presented a more balanced view of the evidence and were supportive of the proposal, however, public responses tended to be more negative towards the idea of renaming low-risk cancers and indicated confusion. Comments seemed to focus on the headlines rather than the full article.ConclusionsThis study offers a novel insight into media coverage of the complex and counterintuitive problem of overdiagnosis. Continued deliberation on how to communicate similar topics to the public through the mainstream media is needed. Future work in the area of low-risk cancer communication should consider the powerful impact of people’s previous experience with a cancer diagnosis and the criticism about being paternalistic and concealing the truth from patients.


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