Application of a Scorecard Tool for Assessing and Engaging Media on Responsible Reporting of Suicide-Related News in India.

Lakshmi Vijayakumar,Soumitra Pathare,Manisha Shastri,Yesha Merchant,Yash Bagra,Aaryaman Pathare,Gregory Armstrong,Tanya Nicole Fernandes,Arpita Patel,Padam Jain

doi:10.3390/ijerph18126206

Abstract

Background: Each year there are more than 800,000 deaths by suicide across the world, while India alone accounts for one third of female suicides and one fourth of male suicides worldwide. Responsible media reporting of suicide is an important suicide prevention intervention at the population level. There is sufficient evidence to show that the way suicide is reported and portrayed in the media can have a significant impact on individuals experiencing suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Recognizing the important role of the media in suicide prevention, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued guidelines for responsible reporting of suicides by the media. The Press Council of India, in 2019 endorsed WHO’s guidelines for media reporting of suicides, however there is no evidence that the Indian media is complying with these guidelines. Methods: To encourage responsible media reporting, we developed a scorecard to assess and rate media reports on suicide. We reviewed several resource documents that contained guidelines on responsible reporting of suicide. After consulting with a team of experts, we arrived at a scorecard that consisted of 10 positive and 10 negative parameters. Results: We applied the scorecard to 1318 reports on suicide from 9 English language newspapers, with the highest readership in India between the dates of 1 April to 30 June 2020. For the articles analyzed, the average positive score across all newspapers was 1.32 and the average negative score was 3.31. Discussion: The scorecard can be a useful tool to assess media reports on suicide and provide metrics for the same. It can facilitate improved monitoring and engagement with media organizations, who can quickly check their own reporting compliance to the WHO guidelines and compare how well they are performing compared to their peers over time.

Highlights

To increase awareness amongst media professionals about the existence of the guidelines and to encourage greater adherence to guidelines on reporting of suicides by the media, we developed a scorecard based on international (WHO) and national (PCI) guidelines for responsible reporting [18].This paper discusses the methodology used to develop the scorecard, and our findings from the assessment and scoring of suicide reports from English language newspapers, with the highest readership in India, between 1 April to 30 June 2020
The initial step in developing the scorecard was to determine if an evaluation tool exists that assesses media reporting of specific incidents of suicide against guidelines defined by suicide prevention experts
Using PubMed, the researchers searched for the keywords “suicide,” “suicide prevention” and “media.” The query generated 636 results that were published between the years 2000 to 2020

Summary

Introduction

Over 800,000 deaths by suicide take place annually [1]. 2019, according to data from India’s National Crime Records Bureau [NCRB] there were. 139,123 deaths by suicide, a 3.4% increase compared to 2018 [2]. India’s suicide rate at 10.4 per 100,000 population [2], tWorld Health Organization (WHO). Estimates it to be nearly 58.6% higher at 16.5 per 1,00,000 of population [3], while a study based on Global Burden of Disease data estimated suicide rates to be nearly 72.1% higher at 17.9 per 100,000 population. The study found that India accounted for 36.6% and

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Discussion

Conclusion