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Abstract
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Background/Purpose: Suicide prevention strategy development has become a strong discourse point among relevant stakeholders, particularly the media. Media professionals in Taiwan and beyond are critical in portraying suicide responsibly.
METHOD: This article explored the role of media professionals (including those from the television and film-related industries) in suicide prevention and how their suicide portrayals could altogether impact public perceptions, understanding, and suicide prevention strategy development. We analyzed the optimal practices outlined in the Taiwan Ministry of Health and Welfare's "Suicide Prevention Series" 36 and 44 and the 2019 WHO resource booklet "Preventing Suicide: A Resource for Filmmakers and Others Working on Stage and Screen." Results: This article recognized that suicide media portrayals may unduly influence suicide imitation effects. Such undue effects and their resulting erroneous media reports might negatively galvanize unnecessary public misunderstandings and impede necessary suicide preventive efforts. Apart from reviewing several WHO-recommended and Taiwan-centric guidelines, the optimistic effectiveness of suicide media portrayals highlighting one's overcoming of suicide crises was also analyzed for media professionals to adhere to more responsible suicide media portrayals.
DISCUSSION: The key roles and guidelines of current best practices of media professionals in suicide prevention were discussed. Based on the merged analyses, we were also concerned about how media portrayals impact suicides with research conducted in Taiwan.
CONCLUSION: Media professionals play a vital strategic role in suicide prevention within the scope of responsible suicide media portrayals. Further research will be needed to discern the linkage between media impacts and suicide rates and to provide firmer evidence to guide suicide prevention in media communication.
Language: zh |