Assessing Suicide Reporting in Top Newspaper Social Media Accounts in China: Content Analysis Study

Kaisheng Lai,Dan Li,Lingnan He,Huijuan Peng,Jingyuan Zhao

doi:10.2196/26654

Abstract

BackgroundPrevious 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.ObjectiveThis study aims to explore the characteristics and quality of suicide reporting by mainstream publishers via social media in China.MethodsVia 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.ResultsChinese 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).ConclusionsThe 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.

Highlights

Suicide is a public health problem of global concern
Our analyses yielded the following findings: (1) Chinese mainstream publishers on social media most frequently reported on suicides that were stated to be associated with conflict and underreported suicides in older adults and rural residents, (2) these suicide reports provided widespread harmful information, especially concerning vividness of the reporting and disclosure of private information, and (3) these reports provided limited helpful information such as direct information about suicide support programs
We found that disclosure of private information showed a moderately problematic performance; almost half of the suicide reporting on the analyzed social media accounts exposed images of the person who died by suicide

Summary

Introduction

Suicide is a public health problem of global concern. More than 800,000 suicide deaths occur every year, meaning that more than 2000 people die by suicide every day [1]. Traditional mainstream media are increasingly using social media platforms to disseminate information on public-related topics, including health. Objective: This study aims to explore the characteristics and quality of suicide reporting by mainstream publishers via social media in China. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines, we assessed the quality of suicide reporting by indicators of harmful information and helpful information. 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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Discussion

Conclusion