Long-Term Changes in the Quality of Media Reporting of Suicide Following a Celebrity Suicide in India

Abstract

Online portals of selected English and local language newspapers and television channels were searched to identify suicide news reports published one year after the celebrity suicide (ACS). These reports ( n = 1952) were compared with the corresponding period of the previous year, immediately following the celebrity suicide (ICS) ( n = 2486), and a three-month period before the celebrity suicide (BCS) ( n = 1381) to assess longitudinal changes in quality of media reporting. There was a decline in reporting of several potentially harmful characteristics over time such as mentioning the deceased’s age and gender ( p < .001 for both), and location of suicide ( p < .001). The quality of media reporting of suicide was significantly better at one year compared to the period immediately following celebrity suicide. This change was mainly driven by an improvement in the reporting quality of English news reports while local language reports continued to remain poorly adherent to reporting guidelines.