Changing trends in quality of media reporting of suicide in the community following a celebrity suicide in India

2021 ◽  
pp. 000486742110096
Author(s):  
Vikas Menon ◽  
Sujita Kumar Kar ◽  
Ramdas Ransing ◽  
Ginni Sharma ◽  
Jigyansa Ipsita Pattnaik ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Online News ◽  
Significant Rise ◽  
Warning Signs ◽  
World Health ◽  
Media Reporting ◽  
Exact Test ◽  
Reporting Practices ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Celebrity Suicide

Objective: Little is known about changes in quality of media reporting of suicide in the community following a celebrity suicide. Our objective was to compare trends in quality of media reporting of suicide, before and after the suicide of an Indian entertainment celebrity, against the World Health Organization suicide reporting guidelines. Method: Online news portals of English and local language newspapers, as well as television channels, were searched to identify relevant suicide-related news articles. Comparison of reporting characteristics before and after the celebrity suicide was performed using chi-square test or Fisher’s exact test. Results: A total of 3867 eligible news reports were retrieved. There was a significant increase in harmful reporting characteristics, such as reporting the name, age and gender of the deceased ( p < 0.001 for all comparisons), mentioning the location ( p < 0.001) and reason for suicide ( p = 0.04) and including photos of the deceased ( p = 0.002) following the celebrity suicide. Helpful reporting practices were less affected; there was a significant rise in inclusion of expert opinion ( p = 0.04) and mention of suicide-related warning signs ( p = 0.02). Conclusion: Following a celebrity suicide, significant changes in the quality of media reporting of suicide were noted with an increase in several potentially harmful reporting characteristics.

Quality of media reporting following a celebrity suicide in India

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vikas Menon ◽  
Sujita Kumar Kar ◽  
Natarajan Varadharajan ◽  
Charanya Kaliamoorthy ◽  
Jigyansa Ipsita Pattnaik ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Data Extraction ◽  
Online News ◽  
Warning Signs ◽  
World Health ◽  
Media Reporting ◽  
Local Language ◽  
Celebrity Suicide ◽  
Health Organization

Abstract Background Celebrity suicides have the potential to trigger suicide contagion, particularly when media reporting is detailed and imbalanced. We aimed to assess the quality of media reporting of suicide of a popular Indian entertainment celebrity against the World Health Organization (WHO) suicide reporting guidelines. Methods Relevant news articles that reported the actor’s suicide were retrieved from online news portals of regional and English language newspapers and television channels in the immediate week following the event. Deductive content analysis of these articles was done using a pre-designed data extraction form. Results A total of 573 news articles were analyzed. Several breaches of reporting were noted in relation to mentioning the word ‘celebrity’ in the title of report (14.7%), inclusion of the deceased’s photograph (88.5%), detailed descriptions of the method (50.4%) and location of suicide (70.6%); local language newspapers were more culpable than English newspapers. Helpful reporting characteristics such as mentioning warning signs (4.1%), including educational information (2.7%) and suicide support line details (14.0%) were rarely practiced. Conclusion Media reporting of celebrity suicide in India is imbalanced and poorly adherent to suicide reporting recommendations. Local language news reports display more frequent and serious violations in reporting as opposed to English news articles.

scholarly journals Assessing the Quality of Media Reporting of Suicide Deaths in Bangladesh Against World Health Organization Guidelines

Crisis ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. M. Yasir Arafat ◽  
Murad M. Khan ◽  
Thomas Niederkrotenthaler ◽  
Michiko Ueda ◽  
Gregory Armstrong
Keyword(s):  
Support Service ◽  
World Health ◽  
Positive Contribution ◽  
Media Reporting ◽  
Reporting Practices ◽  
Daily Newspapers ◽  
Newspaper Reporting ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Health Organization

Abstract. Background: Media reporting of suicide events has thus far gone without sufficient scrutiny in Bangladesh. Aim: The purpose of this study was to assess the quality of newspaper reporting of suicides in Bangladesh against international guidelines. Methods: We used content analysis to assess the quality of suicide reporting in six daily newspapers in Bangladesh. The newspapers were hand-searched between November 2016 and April 2017 and 327 articles reporting on suicide deaths were retrieved. Results: The mean number of suicide articles per day per newspaper was 0.3 (range across newspapers 0.11–0.70) and the mean length was 11.3 sentences. Harmful reporting practices were very common (for example, a detailed suicide method was reported in 75.5% of articles) while almost no potentially helpful reporting practices were observed (for example, no articles gave contact details for a suicide support service). Limitations: The findings are limited to print mass media. Conclusions: We observed that explicit and simplistic reports of suicide deaths were frequently observed in newspapers in Bangladesh. Attempts should be made to understand the perspectives of media professionals in relation to suicide reporting, and to devise strategies to boost the positive contribution that media can make to suicide prevention in this context.

Do Tamil newspapers educate the public about suicide? Content analysis from a high suicide Union Territory in India

2020 ◽  
Vol 66 (8) ◽  
pp. 785-791 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vikas Menon ◽  
Charanya Kaliamoorthy ◽  
Vivekanandhan Kavanoor Sridhar ◽  
Natarajan Varadharajan ◽  
Rini Joseph ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Warning Signs ◽  
Reporting Guidelines ◽  
World Health ◽  
National Guidelines ◽  
Systematic Analysis ◽  
Media Reporting ◽  
The Public ◽  
Reporting Practices

Background: Responsible media reporting of suicide is a key population-level suicide prevention strategy. Thus far, there has been no systematic analysis of media reporting of suicide in Puducherry, a consistently high suicide burden state in India. Aim: To evaluate the adherence of media reports of suicide against the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines in Puducherry. Method: We conducted a year-round content analysis of all suicide-related reports in the two most widely read vernacular dailies of Puducherry. We used a pre-defined data extraction form and coded each item based on the WHO reporting guidelines. Results: A total of 318 suicide reports were retrieved. Harmful reporting practices such as mentioning the method of suicide (99.1%), description of the steps involved (68.2%) and location of suicide (86.5%), monocausal explanations (91.8%), and inciting life events (52.5%) were common. Helpful practices such as mentioning warning signs (1.3%), recognizing links with mental health disorders (3.8%) and effects on bereaved persons (2.2%) were rare. Only one article (0.31%) included any content related to educational/preventive aspects of suicide. Conclusion: Media reporting of suicide in Puducherry, India, does not adhere to reporting guidelines and there is very little focus on educating the public about preventive aspects of suicide. Urgent efforts are warranted to improve the quality of media reporting which should include the development of national guidelines on suicide reporting and collaborative efforts that take into account barriers and perspectives of media professionals.

scholarly journals Analysis of the physical aspects of quality of life of kidney recipients

2015 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 76-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Elza Oliveira de Mendonça ◽  
Marina de Góes Salvetti ◽  
Eulália Maria Chaves Maia ◽  
Ana Cristina de Oliveira e Silva ◽  
Gilson de Vasconcelos Torres
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Kidney Transplantation ◽  
Kidney Transplant ◽  
World Health ◽  
Need For Treatment ◽  
Kidney Recipients ◽  
Quality Of Life Scale ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Health Organization

OBJECTIVE To identify the main factors of the physical domain modified after kidney transplantation and analyze the influence of those aspects in the perception of Overall quality of life (QOL). METHOD Longitudinal study, conducted with 63 chronic kidney patients, evaluated before and after kidney transplant, using the quality of life scale proposed by the World Health Organization. RESULTS We observed significant improvement in the physical aspects of QOL after kidney transplantation. Significant correlations were observed between physical aspects and the Overall QOL. CONCLUSION The kidney transplant generated improvement in all physical aspects of QOL. The factors that showed stronger correlation with the Overall QOL before the transplant were the capacity to work and pain. After the transplant, the perception of need for treatment was the factor that showed stronger correlation with the Overall QOL.

scholarly journals Online media reporting of suicidal behaviour in Ghana: Analysis of adherence to the WHO guidelines

2020 ◽  
pp. 002076402091978
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Nii-Boye Quarshie ◽  
Johnny Andoh-Arthur ◽  
Kwaku Oppong Asante ◽  
Winifred Asare-Doku
Keyword(s):  
Suicidal Behaviour ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
World Health ◽  
Online Media ◽  
Who Guidelines ◽  
Media Reporting ◽  
News Reports ◽  
Media Outlet ◽  
Publicly Owned

Background: Irresponsible media reporting of suicide is a potential risk for copycat suicide. There is a paucity of studies from sub-Saharan Africa on the quality of media reporting of suicide. Objectives: We assessed the compliance of Ghanaian online media outlets with the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines for media reporting of suicide. Methods: We searched 10 local media outlets with strong online presence in Ghana, to identify suicide-related news reports from 2000 through 2019. We applied summative content analysis and chi-square [Formula: see text] test to the data. Results: We included 288 news reports, of which 261 (90.6%) were completed suicides, 7 (2.4%) were attempted suicides and 20 (6.9%) were homicide suicides. Most of the news reports failed to comply with the WHO guidelines: 92.7% mentioned the specific method of the suicide act, 82.6% included ‘suicide’ in the headline and 55.6% included photos of the victims. The [Formula: see text] tests indicated that privately owned media outlets were more likely than publicly owned to post a photo of the victim, [Formula: see text] = 17.37, p < .001, and report the incident location in the headline, [Formula: see text] = 15.00, p < .001. However, generally, there were no statistically significant relationships between the quality of reporting and media outlet ownership. Each of the 288 reports failed to mention any of the potentially helpful features recommended by the WHO guidelines. Conclusion: Regardless of the ownership of the media outlet (whether private or publicly owned), mostly, the online reportage of suicidal behaviour in Ghana deviates sharply from the international recommended best practice by the WHO.

scholarly journals ‘All that Followed a Death. . .’: An Alleged Celebrity Suicide, Media Discourse and Mental Health

2020 ◽  
pp. 002076402098557
Author(s):  
Debanjan Banerjee
Keyword(s):  
Psychological Health ◽  
Public Attitudes ◽  
World Health ◽  
Media Discourse ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Media Reporting ◽  
Mortality And Morbidity ◽  
Celebrity Suicide ◽  
Attitudes Toward Suicide ◽  
Health Organization

Mortality and morbidity due to suicides have been an ever-growing burden in India. The public response to the understanding of suicidal deaths and popular perceptions are heavily dependent on media discourse and reporting of such cases. Recently, the alleged death of a young Indian celebrity due to suicide in India led to a media debacle that quickly spurred into endless speculations and sensational reporting of the associated details. Incidents of high-profile suicide often cause varied perceptions, attitudes and beliefs related to the ‘act’ that can get further compounded by misinformation and media-portrayal of the same. Recent cross-sectional research by Raj et al. (2020) explores the adherence of Indian media reporting of suicides for a month after the celebrity-death. It reveals that more than 80% of the news articles deviate from the prevalent Press Council of India (PCI) and the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines for media-reporting of suicides. With this study in the background, the commentary contextualizes its findings in the Indian socio-cultural scenario, reviews the influence of media on public attitudes toward suicide, and highlights the need for active media-public health collaboration as a part of a national suicide prevention strategy. Suicides need to be viewed beyond just the ‘medical or psychological health’ model through a more holistic biopsychosocial framework.

scholarly journals Changes of Quality of Semen after Swim up Method during Intrauterine Insemination: A Single Centered Experience in Dhaka City

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-57
Author(s):  
Shafeya Khanam ◽  
Morium Faruque Shati ◽  
Muqsuda Ashraf Shuvro ◽  
Sharmin Ahmed ◽  
Trifa Obayed ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Intrauterine Insemination ◽  
Semen Analysis ◽  
Sperm Concentration ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
World Health ◽  
Dhaka City ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Before And After ◽  
The Mean

Background: Quality of semen is very important during intrauterine insemination.Objectives: The purpose of the present study was to observe the changes of quality of semen after swim up method during intrauterine insemination.Methodology: This analytical type of cross-sectional study was carried out at a private infertility centre (Central Hospital Limited, Dhaka) in Dhaka city of Bangladesh from January 2012 to December 2017 for a period of 6 years. Infertile couples who already had undergone natural cycles of super-ovulation for six months or whose duration of infertility was more than one year were included. Semen samples were collected by the process of masturbation in semen production room after three days of abstinence in sterile, labelled container. After production all samples were placed in an incubator at 37 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes for liquefaction. Routine semen analysis was performed using World Health Organizations’ (WHO) semen analysis criteria. Then the samples were randomly assigned to be processed either with swim-up or density-gradient procedure.Result: A total number of 789 male respondents were recruited for this study. The mean age with SD of the study population was 28.96±5.382 with the range of 19 to 46 years. The mean changes of sperm concentration before and after swim up method was 52.70±42.88 with the 95% confidence of 49.58 to 55.82 (p=0.000). The mean changes of sperm motility before and after swim up method was 29.03±14.849 with the 95% confidence of 30.11 to 27.95 (p=0.000). The mean changes of sperm morphology before and after swim up method was 23.96±11.328 (p=0.000).Conclusion: There is a significant changes of quality of semen after swim up method during intrauterine inseminationJournal of National Institute of Neurosciences Bangladesh, 2018;4(1): 54-57

scholarly journals Quality Of Life Of Patients With Breast And Gynecological Cancer Faced With Anticancer Chemotherapy

10.3823/2503 ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrícia Afonso Regino ◽  
Thaís Cristina Elias ◽  
Caroline Freitas Silveira ◽  
Gilberto De Araújo Pereira ◽  
Cristina Wide Pissetti ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Gynecological Cancer ◽  
Statistical Significance ◽  
World Health ◽  
World Health Organization Quality ◽  
Anticancer Chemotherapy ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Student’S T ◽  
Health Organization

Quality of life of patients with breast and gynecological cancer faced with anticancer chemotherapy  Backgroud: the evaluation of quality of life in cancer patients is of interest to researchers due to its impact on health policies. The aim of this study was to assess the quality of life of patients with breast and gynecological cancer, undergoing chemotherapy.  Methods and Findings: this was a quantitative, descriptive and longitudinal study, conducted in the Clinical Hospital of the Triangulo Mineiro Federal University. To assess the quality of life, the Portuguese brief version of the World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL-BREF) instrument was applied. The paired Student’s t-test was used for the analysis of the means of/ the scores of the domains. The study included 14 women. The lowest means were observed in the physical domain, 51.78±15.89 and 50.25±15.37, respectively before and after treatment. There was also a compromise of the psychological and environment domains, however, the data analyzed did not show statistical significance. The main limitation of this study is the sample size.  Conclusion: quality of life presents itself as an important factor for the measurement of results in clinical studies. Keywords: Quality of Life; Breast Neoplasms; Genital Neoplasms, Females; Chemotherapy.

scholarly journals Assessing Suicide Reporting in Top Newspaper Social Media Accounts in China: Content Analysis Study (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaisheng Lai ◽  
Dan Li ◽  
Huijuan Peng ◽  
Jingyuan Zhao ◽  
Lingnan He
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Information Dissemination ◽  
Application Programming Interface ◽  
World Health ◽  
Who Guidelines ◽  
Reporting Practices ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Social Media Platforms

BACKGROUND Previous studies have shown that suicide reporting in mainstream media has a significant impact on suicidal behaviors (eg, irresponsible suicide reporting can trigger imitative suicide). Traditional mainstream media are increasingly using social media platforms to disseminate information on public-related topics, including health. However, there is little empirical research on how mainstream media portrays suicide on social media platforms and the quality of their coverage. OBJECTIVE This study aims to explore the characteristics and quality of suicide reporting by mainstream publishers via social media in China. METHODS Via the application programming interface of the social media accounts of the top 10 Chinese mainstream publishers (eg, People’s Daily and Beijing News), we obtained 2366 social media posts reporting suicide. This study conducted content analysis to demonstrate the characteristics and quality of the suicide reporting. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines, we assessed the quality of suicide reporting by indicators of harmful information and helpful information. RESULTS Chinese mainstream publishers most frequently reported on suicides stated to be associated with conflict on their social media (eg, 24.47% [446/1823] of family conflicts and 16.18% [295/1823] of emotional frustration). Compared with the suicides of youth (730/1446, 50.48%) and urban populations (1454/1588, 91.56%), social media underreported suicides in older adults (118/1446, 8.16%) and rural residents (134/1588, 8.44%). Harmful reporting practices were common (eg, 54.61% [1292/2366] of the reports contained suicide-related words in the headline and 49.54% [1172/2366] disclosed images of people who died by suicide). Helpful reporting practices were very limited (eg, 0.08% [2/2366] of reports provided direct information about support programs). CONCLUSIONS The suicide reporting of mainstream publishers on social media in China broadly had low adherence to the WHO guidelines. Considering the tremendous information dissemination power of social media platforms, we suggest developing national suicide reporting guidelines that apply to social media. By effectively playing their separate roles, we believe that social media practitioners, health institutions, social organizations, and the general public can endeavor to promote responsible suicide reporting in the Chinese social media environment.

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