Disir
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It is an all-too-common story. A body is found, in a bedroom, in a garage or in public. A note, explaining the suicide, is found nearby. Alcohol or drugs, or both, may be found in the victim’s system. Recent depression or ill health or job loss or divorce is suggested as the reason.
As common as suicides are — more than 100 people die by suicide in the United States every day — reporting on them can sorely test journalism ethics. The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention lists suicide as the tenth “leading cause of death in the U.S.” with more than 42,000 Americans dying by suicide annually. The U.S. National Center for Health Statistics said earlier this year that suicide rates in this country are at their highest since 1986. More than 6,000 people died by suicide in the UK in 2014, the Samaritans report. And, after the U.S. presidential election Nov. 8, suicide hotlines faced more than double the calls from people in crisis, the Washington Post reported.
Suicide is unique in that it can often be prevented; on the other hand, there are often cases of copycat suicides, where vulnerable people die because they see others die by suicide or the reaction to it, especially in the news media.
Earlier this year, iMediaEthics discussed best practices for reporting on suicide, highlighting a small Pennsylvania newspaper’s inappropriate coverage of a local death that occurred in public. We’ve frequently written about the sensitive and important matter of carefully reporting on suicide, but with that report, started a series of in-depth looks at suicide coverage in the media.
- See more at: http://www.imediaethics.org/uk-pape...cluded-much-information/#sthash.FwUUP9b3.dpuf
Here is the article from the Sharon Herald newspaper in Sharon, PA
Man jumps to death off viaduct
and here is the one from the UK:
Gravesend father blames lack of help after depressed daughter found hanged in bedroom
There is nothing wrong with either one of these articles. This whole lets pretend it was not suicide and don't discuss the possible reasons for this occurring unless you get what information we decide you should have is harmful to the public.
Ken Norton the executive director of the National Alliance of Mental Illness doesn't seem to grasp this:
“There is much to object to in this article and not much to like,” Norton wrote to iMediaEthics. “There is nothing that offers readers hope or info about warning signs or where to get help.”
As common as suicides are — more than 100 people die by suicide in the United States every day — reporting on them can sorely test journalism ethics. The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention lists suicide as the tenth “leading cause of death in the U.S.” with more than 42,000 Americans dying by suicide annually. The U.S. National Center for Health Statistics said earlier this year that suicide rates in this country are at their highest since 1986. More than 6,000 people died by suicide in the UK in 2014, the Samaritans report. And, after the U.S. presidential election Nov. 8, suicide hotlines faced more than double the calls from people in crisis, the Washington Post reported.
Suicide is unique in that it can often be prevented; on the other hand, there are often cases of copycat suicides, where vulnerable people die because they see others die by suicide or the reaction to it, especially in the news media.
Earlier this year, iMediaEthics discussed best practices for reporting on suicide, highlighting a small Pennsylvania newspaper’s inappropriate coverage of a local death that occurred in public. We’ve frequently written about the sensitive and important matter of carefully reporting on suicide, but with that report, started a series of in-depth looks at suicide coverage in the media.
- See more at: http://www.imediaethics.org/uk-pape...cluded-much-information/#sthash.FwUUP9b3.dpuf
Here is the article from the Sharon Herald newspaper in Sharon, PA
Man jumps to death off viaduct
and here is the one from the UK:
Gravesend father blames lack of help after depressed daughter found hanged in bedroom
There is nothing wrong with either one of these articles. This whole lets pretend it was not suicide and don't discuss the possible reasons for this occurring unless you get what information we decide you should have is harmful to the public.
Ken Norton the executive director of the National Alliance of Mental Illness doesn't seem to grasp this:
“There is much to object to in this article and not much to like,” Norton wrote to iMediaEthics. “There is nothing that offers readers hope or info about warning signs or where to get help.”
