Citation

Ribeiro E. Observatorio 2021; 15(1): 1-22.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021)

DOI

10.15847/obsOBS15120211683

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that media professionals have great responsibility when reporting suicides and dozens of international studies have pointed to consequences on the population's suicidal behavior following news coverage of suicide. For the first time in the year 2000, WHO issued a set of guidelines for media coverage of suicide and has been updating those guidelines. However, the subject of suicide and international guidelines for responsible coverage of the subject seem not to be included in journalist training programs. The aim of the present exploratory study was to investigate the perceptions of journalism students in Portugal, who attend the educational institutions of Lisbon, in relation to the news about suicide, to verify if they know the rules for responsible coverage and to verify if there are differences between the students of the 1st and 3rd years, these last finalists and about to enter in the job market. In total, 248 questionnaires were validated, 157 from the 1st year and 91 from the 3rd year. Most of the probed journalism students were unaware of the best practices for preparing responsible suicide news, as well as showing little sensitivity to the issues raised by the subject. In this sense, it would be important to make educational institutions aware of the need to approach the subject and teach the guidelines to be followed by future journalists and media professionals. © 2021 Obercom. All rights reserved.

Language: pt

Keywords

Journalism; Prevention; Suicide; Training