Citation

Marthoenis, Htay MNN, Arafat SMY. Indian J. Psychiatry 2021; 63(6): 597-600.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, Medknow Publications)

DOI

10.4103/indianjpsychiatry.indianjpsychiatry_285_21

PMID

35136259

PMCID

PMC8793717

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Media reporting of suicide has an essential role in the suicidal behavior of the general population. AIMS: The aim of this study is to assess the quality of online news reports of suicidal behavior in Myanmar against the World Health Organization (WHO) reporting guidelines.

METHODS: We performed a content analysis of all available suicide-related news reports published in vernacular online newspapers of Myanmar.

RESULTS: A total of 285 reports were analyzed, consisting of 87.4% suicides and 12.6% nonfatal suicidal attempts. Potentially, harmful information reported in the text includes the methods of suicide (100%), the word or term in Burmese related to suicide (89.5%), the name of the person (56.5%), life event (50.5%), and photo or suicidal person (17.9%). Meanwhile, helpful information such as prevention programs and the contact information for suicide services to the readers have been infrequently reported.

CONCLUSION: The study found that the newspaper reporting of suicide in Myanmar is grossly nonadherent to the WHO media guidelines.

Language: en

Keywords

Content analysis; media reporting; online newspaper; suicide in Myanmar; World Health Organization guidelines