@article{ref1,
title="The 'newsworthiness' of suicides",
journal="Psychiatria Danubina",
year="2006",
author="Pirkis, Jane and Burgess, P. and Blood, R. Warwick and Francis, Catherine",
volume="18",
number="Suppl 1",
pages="114-114",
abstract="Background: Few published studies have examined the proportion of suicides that are reported, or considered the factors that make a suicide newsworthy. Methods: We retrieved newspaper, radio and television reports on individuals suicides from 515 Australian sources in 2000, and compared them with routinely-collected national data on all completed suicides for the same period. Results: Of 2,341 suicides occurring in the study period, 20 (1%) were reported. Suicides by young people and by females tended to be over-represented among those that were reported, as did those that involved violent methods. In the majority of reports, the suicide was considered newsworthy in the context of a broader issue (e.g., the state of the mental health system). Some, however, received attention because the individual was a local figure, or because the circumstances surrounding the suicide were unusual (e.g., murder-suicide). Conclusion: Only a small proportion of suicides are reported, but there are issues about the extent to which &quot;mass mediated reality&quot; reflects &quot;official reality&quot;, and the way in which some reports are framed.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0353-5053",
doi="",
url="http://dx.doi.org/"
}