The effects mass media have on audiences has long been the topic of many studies, and the role the media might play in suicide is perhaps the most important of these studies because it may literally involve life or death results.
The Suicide Epidemic
The World Health Organization reports that in the last 45 years suicide rates have increased by 60 per cent worldwide. Suicide is now among the three leading causes of death for both men and women aged 15 to 44 years old in some countries. As the Ottawa Citizen series on suicide pointed out, there are approximately 3,700 suicides in Canada each year, the highest rate of suicide in the Western hemisphere. While it is estimated that 90 per cent of suicide victims suffered from a psychiatric disorder of some sort, there are still sociological factors that can trigger suicide.
Is Suicide Contagious?
The idea of suicide by imitation originated in 1774 after the publication of a romantic story called "The Sorrows of Young Werther" by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. In the book, the main character, Werther, is a young man of high intellect and passion who becomes obsessed in his love for a married woman, and out of extreme despair, eventually commits suicide by shooting himself. The book was very popular in Europe, however, within a short period of time many young men committed suicide using the same method as Werther. The book was blamed and even banned in some cities, leading to the expression "the Werther Effect."
The Werther Effect
In 1911, Edward Phelps published his study of the effects of media on suicide, and in the 1960s several U.S. researchers undertook systematic research projects on the topic. In 1970, Jerome Motto analyzed suicide statistics in large U.S. cities where journalists were on strike at the time, and therefore, no written news was coming from the press. He found that the number of suicides among women under the age of 35 decreased during this period.
In 1974 and again in 1990, D.P. Phillips analyzed U.S. suicide statistics in relation to news about real and ficitious suicidical acts in newspapers and on television and found a significant increase in the number of imitation suicides. The increase could been seen mostly with young people, and the rate depended on how much publicity was given to the acts of suicide. After some contradicting reports were published, Phillips analyzed various alternative explanations and refined his methodology to include seasonal changes and economic cycles.
Studies Show Link Between Media Coverage and Suicide
What the majority of studies have found is that there is indeed a correlation between media portrayal of suicide and suicide rates, regardless of how much that correlation may vary in different circumstances. The media, therefore, has a responsibility to provide sensitive coverage of suicide that is careful to avoid providing details that may trigger a vulnerable person into intimidating suicide, while at the same time providing important factors regarding suicide and the alternative options that are available.
While carefully reporting suicide will in no way drastically lower the rates of this epidemic, it may help slowly decrease the number of lives lost each year by providing a compassionate and thorough examination of suicide. In October of 2003, the Ottawa Citizen ran a nine-article series entitled "Suicide: The Quiet Epidemic." Reporters Ian McLeod and Andrew Duffy took an in-depth look at suicide in Canada, and in one of the articles they examined the role of media in suicide. They found that careful reporting in the media can actually help in the prevention of suicides, especially in younger people.
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