Media coverage of celebrity suicide can cause large-scale copycat effect
- Date:
- September 2, 2014
- Source:
- Wiley
- Summary:
- Researchers who analyzed media coverage of the suicide of a national actress in South Korea and its impact on subsequent suicides found that the number of suicide-related articles surged around 80 times in the week after a suicide compared with the week prior.
- Share:
Researchers who analyzed media coverage of the suicide of a national actress in South Korea and its impact on subsequent suicides found that the number of suicide-related articles surged around 80 times in the week after a suicide compared with the week prior.
Many articles (37.1%) violated several critical items on the World Health Organization suicide reporting guidelines, like containing a detailed suicide method. The investigators estimated that there were approximately 430 excess suicides during the 4 weeks after her death due to media coverage.
"This figure is the largest record of cases relating to copycat suicides that has been reported to academic journals," said Weon-Young Lee, co-author of the Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior study. "Most gender and age subgroups were at significantly higher risk of suicide.
Journal Reference:
- JeSuk Lee, Weon-Young Lee, Jang-Sun Hwang, Steven John Stack. To What Extent Does the Reporting Behavior of the Media Regarding a Celebrity Suicide Influence Subsequent Suicides in South Korea? Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 2014; DOI: 10.1111/sltb.12109
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