Newspaper Coverage of Suicide: A Content Analysis of Daily Kawish Newspaper - An Elite Sindhi Newspaper of Pakistan

Abstract

This paper is aimed at observing the coverage of suicide issues in Daily Kawish newspaper-a well-recognized Sindhi language newspaper. Content analysis technique is applied in this study. News items excluding editorials, articles, columns and letters to editor features were analyzed. Results show that 38 items in terms of frequency were reported by newspaper in the month of June. Items carrying attempted and completed suicide acts reported were 13 and 25, respectively. 21 news stories depicted females committing suicide acts and while 17 portrayed males committing suicide acts. Given that 17 news items did not identify the age of those committing suicide, 14 news depicted age bracket from 21 to 40 years of people committing suicide acts, and while 7 news items elaborated the age bracket under 20 years of people committing suicide. As for placement, 21 news items were placed on the inner pages excluding showbiz and editorial, 9 were placed on agriculture and business section page, and 8 items were placed on the second page of the newspaper. 19 news items showed that people who committed suicide used hanging method and 14 showed people committed suicide by using poisoning technique and 5 by using other techniques. In terms of causes of committing suicide, 22 news items explained the domestic conflicts, 8 unidentified, 5 mental disorder and whereas 3 items showed other issues as causes behind committing suicide acts. All the news items detected to have not come up with images of suicide acts. The respective newspaper must also cover announcement news and awareness campaign concerned news against this phenomenon as well.