Little Strokes Fell Big Oaks: How Repeated Recommendations for Suicide Reporting Drive the Quality of Suicide News in South Korea

Abstract

This study investigates how far repeated releases of recommendations for responsible reporting on suicide (RRS) are associated with changes in the quality of suicide reporting. A content analysis was conducted on suicide news articles ( N = 606) by the Korean newspapers Hankyoreh Sinmun and Chosun Ilbo in four six-month periods from 2004 to 2019, which covered the periods before and after the releases of three versions of suicide reporting guidelines. Elements for RRS served as a proxy for the reporting quality, which includes both avoiding negative elements and providing positive ones. Not only the number of suicide news stories reduced by half in the last two observation periods, overall RRS scores and most individual RRS elements increased in the third period, compared to the first or second period. The avoidance RRS for headline, however, was not significantly improved. Korean news media also tended to be sensationalistic in using photos.