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Abstract
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Some of those who kill themselves each year have their death reported in the newspaper. A typical report from the Buffalo Evening News is the following report.
Policeman, Shot, Dies
Joe Doe, 40 of 100 Main Street, a Buffalo policeman, died Monday evening in Buffalo General Hospital where he was admitted with a bullet wound of the chest in the afternoon. He was found in his bedroom by a sister, Jane, and his service revolver was lying nearby, police said. The medical examiner's office is investigating the incident.
Occasionally, a more extensive report is given, as when the individual is very famous.
The present paper was designed to investigate which completed suicides do get their death reported in the newspaper and which do not.
Buffalo has two newspapers: The Courier Express and the Buffalo Evening News. Only the latter maintains a library service that lists suicides and so the present data are based on the practices of the Buffalo Evening News.
How Many Suicides are Reported?
It was expected that the advent of a suicide-prevention center would increase the newspaper coverage of suicides in the area. The data showed the opposite tendency. In the years 1959-1961 there were 245 completed suicides in Erie County (of which 118 were in the city of Buffalo) and 152 reports of cases in the Buffalo Evening News. In 1969, the first year that Erie County had a stable suicide prevention center in operation for the whole year, there were 78 completed suicides (of which 44 took place in the city of Buffalo) and the Buffalo Evening News had 29 reports of cases. Thus, the percentage dropped from 62% to 37%.
Are Newspaper Reports of Possible Suicides about Deaths Classified as Suicide?
The 29 reports of deaths in the Buffalo Evening News in 1969 that the library service classified as suicide were checked and only 23 actually received a death certificate classifying the death as suicide. The remaining 6 were classified as undetermined.
It might be noted that, of these 6, 5 were classified as undetermined by the same medical examiner, attesting to the reluctance of the Erie County medical examiners to classify deaths as suicidal. Mildred Spencer of the Buffalo Evening News wrote of the inefficiencies of the Erie County medical examiner system in the newspaper in 1970...
Language: en |