The quality of media reporting of suicide news in a high suicide state of India against World Health Organization guidelines: A content analysis study of major newspapers in Chhattisgarh

Abstract

Objectives: Suicide rates in India are amongst the highest in the world, resulting in an estimated 250,000 suicide deaths annually, and suicide rates in the state of Chhattisgarh are more than double the national average. Responsible media reporting is one of the few population-level suicide prevention interventions. To inform media interventions, the objective of our study was to assess the quality of newspaper reporting of suicide-related news in Chhattisgarh against World Health Organization (WHO) suicide reporting guidelines. Methods: We used content analysis to assess the quality of suicide reporting against WHO guidelines in the thirteen most highly read Hindi- and English-language daily newspapers in Chhattisgarh between February and July of 2019. Results: A total of 441 suicide articles were retrieved. The mean number of suicide articles per day per newspaper was 0.6 (range 0.2–1.1) and 33.3% of the articles were 10 sentences or less. The vast majority (97.8%) of articles primarily focused on reporting of specific suicide deaths and attempts. Harmful reporting practices were very common (for example, a detailed suicide method was reported in 38.7% of articles) while helpful reporting practices were rare (for example, just 0.5% gave contact details for a suicide support service). Conclusions: We observed that short and explicit articles covering suicide incidents was commonplace amongst newspapers in Chhattisgarh. Attempts should be made to devise context-specific strategies to boost the positive contribution that media can make to suicide prevention in Chhattisgarh.

Keywords

• India
• Suicide
• Suicide attempt
• Suicidal ideation
• Media
• Content analysis