World Health Organization Media Research Articles

Adherence to the WHO guidelines of newspaper-reporting on suicides in Pakistan: a content analysis

There is a lack of evidence regarding the rate of adherence to the World Health Organization (WHO) media guidelines of vernacular newspapers reporting on suicides in Pakistan. Also, the relevance of this report is based on the lack of official data regarding the number of suicides across the country. The aim of this study was to explore the rate of adherence to the WHO guidelines of two popular newspapers in reporting on suicides in Pakistan. We daily analysed the online version of two popular newspapers in Pakistan, the daily Jeejal (in Sindhi) and daily Jang (in Urdu), from 1 August 2021 to 31 July 2022; we performed a content analysis of news reporting on national suicides and evaluated their rate of adherence to the WHO media guidelines. One hundred and seventy-three reports of suicides were identified and analysed; 84% of them reported the names of victims, 70% reported their age, and 46% included information regarding their occupation. Characteristics of suicide methods were reported in 87% of reports, reasons for suicide in 66%, as well as locations in 87%. In general, 84% of newspapers reported incomplete information regarding suicide prevention and help-seeking, so we may conclude they were not fully adherent to the WHO recommendations. This study indicates that national vernacular newspapers may improve their reporting on suicides and should revise their policy in order to be adherent to the WHO guidelines. Also, better and responsible reporting may provide an accurate epidemiological source regarding suicide where official data are missing at the national level.

Unveiling shadows: analyzing suicide reporting in Muslim-majority countries vis-à-vis WHO's media guidelines.

Numerous studies have been conducted globally to assess the compliance level of newspapers with the World Health Organization's media guidelines for responsible suicide reporting. To identify and review such studies conducted in Muslim-majority countries between 2014 and 2022, we searched PubMed and Google Scholar databases. We identified 12 eligible studies from Pakistan (n=4), Bangladesh (n=2), Malaysia (n=1), Indonesia (n=1), Iraq (n=1), Iran (n=1), Nigeria (n=1), and Egypt (n=1). These studies indicated an overall lack of adherence to the guidelines. However, the level of nonadherence was particularly high in Pakistan. Effective suicide prevention programs may help in promoting responsible reporting of suicide.

Quality of Newspaper Reporting of Suicide in Kashmir: Adherence to World Health Organization Guidelines

Background: Sensible media reporting of suicide is one of the important prevention strategies. However, there has been no report assessing the quality of media reporting of suicide in Kashmir, India. Aim: We aimed to assess the quality of newspaper reporting of suicide in Kashmir, India against the World Health Organization (WHO) reporting guidelines. Methods: We searched the available contents in four English and two Urdu newspapers of Jammu Kashmir and assessed the adherence to the WHO media guidelines. We collected the reports between 25 January 2016 and 18 September 2020. Results: A total of 152 reports were scrutinized. Almost all the reports mentioned the name of the person and the method of suicide (99.34%), occupation (85.53%) of the person. The life events were mentioned in 35.53% of the reports. Among the reports, 38.82% explained suicide on the basis of the mono-causality, and 3.95% mentioned suicide notes. Only 3.29% of reports had traced mental illness, and none of the reports mentioned evidence of substance abuse. Only three reports mentioned expert opinion, and none of the reports mentioned any research findings, statistics, prevention programs, educational information, and contact information for help. Conclusion: The study revealed that news reports of suicide in Kashmir adhere poorly to the WHO media reporting guidelines. Identifying information of the deceased was explicitly mentioned in almost every report while almost none of the reports mentioned educational information.

Quality of online news reporting of suicidal behavior in Myanmar: Adherence to the World Health Organization reporting guidelines

Background:Media reporting of suicide has an essential role in the suicidal behavior of the general population.Aims:The aim of this study is to assess the quality of online news reports of suicidal behavior in Myanmar against the World Health Organization (WHO) reporting guidelines.Methods:We performed a content analysis of all available suicide-related news reports published in vernacular online newspapers of Myanmar.Results:A total of 285 reports were analyzed, consisting of 87.4% suicides and 12.6% nonfatal suicidal attempts. Potentially, harmful information reported in the text includes the methods of suicide (100%), the word or term in Burmese related to suicide (89.5%), the name of the person (56.5%), life event (50.5%), and photo or suicidal person (17.9%). Meanwhile, helpful information such as prevention programs and the contact information for suicide services to the readers have been infrequently reported.Conclusion:The study found that the newspaper reporting of suicide in Myanmar is grossly nonadherent to the WHO media guidelines.

Pinning Despair and Distress - Suicide-Related Content on Visual Social Media Platform Pinterest.

Background: The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that an individual dies by suicide every 40s. Aim: Our aim was to analyze how suicide is portrayed on the visual social media platform Pinterest. Method: This study used a quantitative content analysis of 500 suicide-related Pinterest posts. Content codes included the presence of factors related to the WHO media reporting guidelines. Results: The majority of posts were published by individual Pinterest users, with public and mental health entities rarely present. Suicidal ideation content was more prevalent in visuals than in accompanying text on Pinterest. Considering the WHO media suicide-reporting guidelines, posts featured more helpful than harmful content, but explicit details of suicides and suicide attempts were still prevalent. Finally, comments were more likely to identify with suicidal ideation or post negative content than post supportive content. Limitations: Content analysis cannot discern motivations behind posts; future studies should include other methods. Conclusion: This study suggests there is a critical need for further research into Pinterest and suicide-related topics.

News reporting of suicidal behaviour in Nigeria: Adherence assessment to World Health Organization guidelines.

Sensible media reporting has been considered an important suicide prevention strategy which is an under-researched issue in Nigeria. There is a dearth of research assessing how the media has been reporting suicidal news to the general population in Nigeria. It was aimed to see the adherence of news reports to the World Health Organization (WHO) suicide reporting guidelines while reporting the events. We searched the published contents of 10 English newspapers of Nigeria and assessed the adherence to the WHO media guidelines for reporting suicide from January 2010 to December 2019. Most of the reports (85.31%) mentioned completed suicides, 4.4% recorded suicides, and 9.5% recorded suicide-related homicides. The majority of the reports mentioned the name (85.6%) and profession (63.8%) of the person; the name of the method (92%) and life events (67.8%). The word 'suicide' was mentioned in the headline of 87.6% of the reports; the method was mentioned in the headline of 22.8% of the reports, and 31.7% of the reports referred to life events in the headline. Only 8.8% of reports had traced mental illness, 33.3% traced the warning signs, 2.8% mentioned evidence of substance abuse and very few reports mentioned educative materials. The study found that Nigeria's online newspapers are poorly adherent to the WHO media reporting guidelines. Explicit descriptions of the person, methods, life events, and mono-causal explanations were frequently published. Negligible initiatives have been found to educate the general people in the reports.

Quality of Thai media reporting of suicidal behavior: Compliance against the World Health Organization media guidelines

BackgroundAlthough media reporting has influence on suicide there has no report in Thailand regarding the quality of media in reporting suicidal news. ObjectivesThis study aimed to assess the quality of English language media reports of suicidal behaviors in Thailand against the World Health Organization (WHO) media guidelines. MethodsWe scrutinized the suicide news contents of four purposively selected English language newspapers in Thailand. Using Google search function of the online newspapers, the keywords of “suicide”, “hanging self”, and “drink poison” were used to search the suicide-related news contents. ResultsThe vast majority of English newspapers in Thailand reported harmful information in reporting suicide-related news. Almost all reported locations where the suicide took place, methods of suicide, gender and age of the victim. Approximately one-fourth also showed a picture of the person who died by suicide. ConclusionsThe English online newspaper in Thailand did not follow the WHO media guidelines in reporting suicide news. Harmful information to the readers was presented in both title and content of the news. Meanwhile, potentially helpful information such as who to contact or where to seek help had been rarely reported.

The quality of online media reporting of celebrity suicide in India and its association with subsequent online suicide-related search behaviour among general population: An infodemiology study.

The literature reports increased suicide rates among general population in the weeks following the celebrity suicide, known as the Werther effect. The World Health Organization (WHO) has developed guidelines for responsible media reporting of suicide. The present study aimed to assess the quality of online media reporting of a recent celebrity suicide in India and its impact on the online suicide related search behaviour of the population. A total of 200 online media reports about Sushant Singh Rajput's suicide published between 14th to 20th June 2020 were assessed for quality of reporting following the checklist prepared using the WHO guidelines. Further, we examined the change in online suicide-seeking and help-seeking search behaviour of the population following celebrity suicide for the month of June using selected keywords. In terms of potentially harmful media reportage, 85.5 % of online reports violated at least one WHO media reporting guideline. In terms of potentially helpful media reportage, only 13 % articles provided information about where to seek help for suicidal thoughts or ideation. There was a significant increase in online suicide-seeking (U = 0.5, p < 0.05) and help-seeking (U = 6.5, p < 0.05) behaviour after the reference event, when compared to baseline. However, the online peak search interest for suicide-seeking was greater than help-seeking. This provides support for a strong Werther effect, possibly associated with poor quality of media reporting of celebrity suicide. There is an urgent need for taking steps to improve the quality of media reporting of suicide in India.

Indonesian online newspaper reporting of suicidal behavior: Compliance with World Health Organization media guidelines.

Despite the lack of attention, suicide is a major public and mental health problem in Indonesia. Research on how Indonesian newspapers portray suicide case has been lacking. To assess the quality of Indonesian online newspaper reporting suicide news and its compliance with the World Health Organization (WHO) mass media reporting guidelines. The content of suicide news reported in online newspapers was searched and scrutinized against the WHO suicide reporting guidelines. Within the duration of 6 months, there were 548 suicide news reported. This consisted of 16.8% attempted suicide and 83.2% completed suicide. Approximately 90.3% reported age, 97.3% reported gender and 64.3% reported the marital status of the victims. Furthermore, 68% reported the methods of suicide in headline or title, 40.5% shown the picture of the victims and 56.6% shown illustration only, and 67.2% reported life event related to suicide act. The vast majority of online newspapers in Indonesia exaggerate suicide news. They rarely inform the readers that there is hope and help available. The majority also do not conform to the WHO media guidelines.