“Suicide is among the three leading causes of death among those aged 15-44 years in some countries, and the second leading cause of death in the 10-24 years age group; these figures do not include suicide attempts which are up to 20 times more frequent than completed suicide.” [http://www.who.int/mental_health/prevention/suicide/suicideprevent/en/] As I went through this line, I couldn’t help but let myself think: do the media affect suicide after all?
Back in 1774 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe wrote “The Sorrows of Young Man Werther”, a novel where the protagonist dies because of a failed romance; it was banned in many places in Europe, since it was thought to be responsible for suicides in Italy, Leipzig and Copenhagen. During the month of Marilyn Monroe’s suicide (August 1962) a 12% suicide rate increase was indicated, in the US alone. Generally popular publicized suicide stories tend to increase the rate by 2.5% in the month of media coverage in the US.
In most cases copy cat suicide evidence is very indirect and usually weak. However, in the book Final Exit (1993) asphyxiation is a means recommended as a suicide method for ill people; in the year it was published suicides by asphyxiation rose by 313%. A copy of Final Exit was found in 27% of these cases.
Why do the media affect suicide though? One possible explanation is the imitation one; simply, someone believes that the person that committed suicide has “solved” their problems through it. People who suffer from mental disorders or illnesses copy the behaviour of the other people that killed themselves. Even if the content or background may differ, the general idea that problems are solved seems to be ruling.
Another possible explanation is the identification one. Since people can identify with a story, there’s more impact in it. Last but not least, it just might have to do with the mood; the stories that appear prone to suicide are common in society (e.g. high unemployment rate) have more copycat effect, since people are on the verge of suicide, so stories that appear when not only related to suicide conditions, but moods are low will have less impact on society.
All in all, the media seem to have an impact on suicides, but isn’t it really related to the person? After all, studying psychology teaches us that every individual is different, thus, there must be different stories that affect each person separately.
Hey Eva, that was a really interesting blog! Some very shocking statistics all because some books were published.. At the end you mention how everyone is individual and so should be uniquely affected by such media. But shouldn't we take into account the fact that certain people do look for these sources of information? Maybe they all have something cognitively similar
ReplyDeleteAn interesting blog, some of the figures are astonishing. However, how would you relate this to research methods? I would have mentioned about the ethics of researching such a sensitive and upsetting topic, and the difficulties this presents. Also, you could have mentioned the psychological reasons for suicide, for there are many. Mental illness often relates to suicide, so how can we study this link and whether it is causal or just a correlation? But overall, an informative blog :)
ReplyDeleteThank you both for commenting my blog :)
ReplyDeleteJake: There must be some kind of common factor that leads people to look for that kind of information, I was unbable to find any studies to prove it though.
idixowilkins: I used facts from studies, which is my unsuffiecient reason why it is related to research methods :P Thanks for your ideas! My new blog entry might just include the answers to your questions!
Hi Eva, I really enjoyed reading your blog, it was intriguing. I thought you used facts and statistics well to back up your point and showed how the media does affect suicides. I agree with idixowilkins though, I think you could have related it to research methods more rather than focusing on a delicate issue and not including enough relevant content.
ReplyDeleteThank you Meggie, you were right indeed, there were a few mistakes when it came to my blog. Better luck next time, I guess! I appreciate your comment :) Thank you for your time once again
ReplyDeleteI found your points interesting about why is it that media effects suicide levels. But the only link I can come to is that the media would cause people to feel down about life because of the depressing things they include in their reports. And if they media is not being depressing, they’re showing you photos of ‘beautiful’ people to emphasise what is typically beautiful and what the idea man or woman should look like. So maybe someone just opens up their newspaper whilst feeling that life is going badly, see an article on a suicide case and then turn over to further depressing things and then find themselves feeling even lower then before.
ReplyDeleteThese statistics are shocking, even without the link to the media the fact that it is the second biggest cause of death in 10-24 year old's is worrying and I find it shocking that if this is the case. The link to the media is an interesting theory and although you could never prove it it is something that is worth looking into. You could have included ways you would research this link further if you were able to create a study about it but this is a well written starting point and something that should be investigated further. Other than that this is an interesting blog and varied from many others I have read so well done!
ReplyDelete