Coverage that Kills

The source:“Are News Reports of Suicide Contagious? A Stringent Test in Six U.S. Cities” by Daniel Romer, Patrick E. Jamieson, and Kathleen H. Jamieson, in ___Journal of Communication___, June ­2006.

It’s often hard to say how strongly the news media affect the behavior of individuals, but in one in­stance the influence is sur­prisingly clear: Media coverage of suicides encourages more people to take their own ­lives.

A dozen studies point clearly in this direction, showing that front-page stories and those involving celebrities are most likely to motivate others to take their own lives. Yet each of these earlier studies had limitations, note Daniel Romer, Patrick E. Jamieson, and Kathleen H. Jamieson, all researchers at the University of Pennsylvania’s An­nen­berg Public Policy Center. They took a close statistical look at the experience in six cities over a four-month period, aiming to sort out the influence of everything from local news broadcasts to soap operas and ­movies.

They found that media attention to suicides led to 21 additional deaths, or 2.5 percent of all such deaths in the six cities. The suicides occurred among the youngest and oldest age groups. People in the 25-to-44 age group were _less_ likely to commit suicide in the days after one was reported.

Not guilty of influencing suicides, say the authors, were national television news, movies, and soap operas. Coverage in local newspapers and news shows accounted for virtually all of the increase.

Social scientists who have studied the phenomenon aren’t sure how to explain this “contagion effect.” Some troubled people may identify with celebrities or others who kill themselves; some may feel less inhibited when public attention is focused on what is normally a socially proscribed act. The authors don’t suggest that the news media stop reporting suicides, but journalists could “reduce the potential for suicidal imitation by downplaying the romantic or sensational aspect of suicide deaths as well as the implication that suicide resolves problems for the victim.”