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Covering Suicide Worldwide: Media Responsibilities
Guidelines, training and ethical issues raised by the latest review of research about the impact of media coverage on suicidal behaviour.
Compiled by Bill Norris & Mike Jempson (The PressWise Trust) with Lesley Bygrave (Befrienders International) in 2001 and updated by Einar Thorsen in 2006.
Compelling evidence from the initial findings of a comprehensive and systematic review of international research into the impact of media coverage of suicide, suggests that media professionals everywhere have an onerous responsibility when reporting about suicide.
The review covers a variety of media portrayals of suicide, including fiction; this commentary focuses on journalistic coverage of suicide. Probably the most important and encouraging message of the study is that 'responsible approaches to the portrayal of suicidal behaviour in the media can save lives'.
The full report can be downloaded here:
(Note: to read PDF documents, install Adobe Acrobat Reader)
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