@article{ref1,
title="Reporting on suicide between 1819 and 1944",
journal="Crisis",
year="2018",
author="Arendt, Florian",
volume="39",
number="5",
pages="344-352",
abstract="BACKGROUND: Suicide rates increased substantially in many countries during the 19th century. Little is known about news coverage on suicide in this period and its relationship to suicide rates. AIMS: To test whether there was a covariation between the quantity of reporting and suicide rates and whether the press relied on sensational reporting. <br><br>METHOD: A content analysis of Austrian news coverage between 1819 and 1944 was conducted and compared with contemporary findings. <br><br>RESULTS: There were similar corresponding troughs and peaks in both time series, indicative of covariation. The analysis revealed that variations in the quantity of reporting predicted the following year's suicide rates, a pattern consistent with a long-term Werther effect. Conversely, suicide rates did not predict future values of the quantity of reporting. Furthermore, the press substantially overrepresented &quot;vivid&quot; firearm suicides compared with other more &quot;pallid&quot; methods such as drowning, indicative of sensational reporting. LIMITATIONS: The causal order of the quantity of reporting and suicide rates should be interpreted with caution. <br><br>CONCLUSION: The press may have contributed to the establishment of suicide as a mass phenomenon in the 19th century. The contemporary comparison is indicative of temporal stability.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0227-5910",
doi="10.1027/0227-5910/a000507",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1027/0227-5910/a000507"
}