TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2020//
TI  - Tragedy following tragedies: estimating the copycat effect of media-covered suicide in the age of digital news
JO  - American economist
A1  - Ownby, Daniel
A1  - Routon, P. Wesley
SP  - ePub
EP  - ePub
VL  - ePub
IS  - ePub
N2  - The Werther effect is the name given to the observed relationship between celebrity suicide and the national suicide rate. Media-covered suicides are often followed by a positive shock in the national suicide rate. Using a unique time series comprising media coverage variables collected from Google News and major news websites, combined with several U.S. national trends from various sources, we estimate the magnitude of the Werther effect in the age of digital news media, where news of celebrity suicide spreads farther and more rapidly. We find a speeding up of this effect, which in the last century was only observed in the month following news coverage. Now, the effect appears slightly more prominent in the month of coverage, though it still persists in the following month. We also find evidence that the Werther effect has diminished in magnitude, perhaps due to the increased normalization of both suicide and celebrity suicide., JEL Classifications: z13, z19, i19<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0569-4345
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0569434519896768
ID  - ref1
ER  -