Citation

Teismann T, Schwidder J, Willutzki U. Zeitschr. Gesundheitspsychol. 2013; 21(3): 113-121.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, Hogrefe Publishing)

DOI

10.1026/0943-8149/a000096

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Media reports about celebrity suicides are associated with an increase in nationwide suicide rates. Various organizations have therefore developed media guidelines for the coverage of suicide. In the current analysis, adherence to these guidelines is evaluated for the suicide of Robert Enke († 2009) - a well-known German football player. We analyzed 169 articles published in ten German newspapers with a high circulation in the month following the suicide of Enke.

RESULTS show that adherence to media guidelines was low in the case of Robert Enke: 77.5 % of the articles displayed features of inadequate media reporting and 51.5 % of the articles displayed no feature of preventive media reporting. A cluster-analysis identified five types of media reports, which differed in content and amount of preventive reporting. Articles in the tabloids were only marginally different from articles in other newspapers. Practical implications of these findings are discussed. © Hogrefe Verlag, Göttingen 2013.

Language: de

Keywords

Suicide; Werther-effect; Media guidelines