The European Journal of Public Health Advance Access originally published online on March 19, 2009
The European Journal of Public Health 2009 19(4):361-364; doi:10.1093/eurpub/ckp034
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Media and Public Health |
The gap between suicide characteristics in the print media and in the population
Thomas Niederkrotenthaler1, Benedikt Till2, Arno Herberth3, Martin Voracek4, Nestor D. Kapusta5, Elmar Etzersdorfer6, Markus Strauss1 and Gernot Sonneck1,7
1 Institute for Medical Psychology, Center for Public Health, Medical University of Vienna, Austria
2 Department of Communication, University of Vienna, Austria
3 Department of German Language and Literature, University of Vienna, Austria
4 Department of Basic Psychological Research, School of Psychology, University of Vienna, Austria
5 Department of Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy, Medical University of Vienna, Spitalgasse 23, A-1090 Vienna, Austria
6 Furtbach Hospital, Furtbachstraße 6, 70178 Stuttgart, Germany
7 Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Social Psychiatry, Vienna, Austria
Correspondence: Thomas Niederkrotenthaler, Medical University of Vienna, Center for Public Health, Institute for Medical Psychology, Severingasse 9, 1090 Vienna, Austria, tel: +43 1 4277 65626, fax: +43 1 4277 9656, e-mail: thomas.niederkrotenthaler{at}meduniwien.ac.at
Received December 9, 2008 , accepted February 17, 2009
Background: Programmes to educate media professionals about suicide are increasingly established, but information about which suicide cases are most likely to be reported in the mass media is sparse. Methods: We applied binomial tests to compare frequencies of social characteristics of all domestic suicides in the 13 largest Austrian print media in 2005 with frequencies of suicide characteristics in the population. Additionally, each reported suicide case was linked to its respective entry in the suicide database. We performed a logistic regression analysis, with presence of an article as outcome, and sex of the suicide case, age, religious affiliation, family status, conduction of an autopsy and location of the suicide as explaining variables. Time of the year and federal state where the suicide happened was controlled for. Results: Binomial tests showed that suicides involving murder or murder attempt were over-represented in the media. Reporting on mental disorders was under-represented. In the regression analysis, the likelihood of a report was negatively associated with the age of suicide cases. Foreign citizenship was a further predictor of a suicide report. The methods of drowning, jumping, shooting and rare methods were more likely to be reported than hanging, which is the most frequent suicide method in Austria. Conclusions: Suicide characteristics in the media are not representative of the population. The identified discrepancies provide a basis for tailor-made education of mass media professionals.
Keywords: mass media, suicide, education, health promotion, Austria