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News Media Coverage of Stakeholder Views on Suicide and Its Reporting in New Zealand

journal contribution
posted on 2021-11-03, 06:46 authored by GLS Jenkin, BE Slim, Catherine CollingsCatherine Collings
Abstract. Background: Periodically, a debate around suicide reporting becomes prominent in the media. At one point, the Chief Coroner of New Zealand made a public call to the media to open up discussions around suicide and its reporting. Following this action, a high-profile debate emerged in the media. Aims: Our aim was to identify the key players in this debate and examine their perspectives. Method: From a Factiva search of news items from high-circulation newspapers, we identified key stakeholders and documented their perspectives using a framing matrix. Results: Seven stakeholder groups were identified with coroners and health service providers dominant in the news. Framing around the issues varied. There was consensus among the majority of stakeholders supporting continued public health type coverage of the issue of suicide, but a number of differences in levels of support for the reporting individual suicides. Limitations: Although specific to New Zealand, the findings will be of interest to countries considering reporting restrictions. Conclusion: The debate around suicide and its reporting appears to have been obfuscated by the conflating of two different types of media reporting on suicide: news media coverage of suicide as a public health issue and the reporting of individual suicide cases.

History

Preferred citation

Jenkin, G. L. S., Slim, B. E. & Collings, S. (2020). News Media Coverage of Stakeholder Views on Suicide and Its Reporting in New Zealand. Crisis, 41(4), 248-254. https://doi.org/10.1027/0227-5910/a000629

Journal title

Crisis

Volume

41

Issue

4

Publication date

2020-07-01

Pagination

248-254

Publisher

Hogrefe Publishing Group

Publication status

Published

ISSN

0227-5910

eISSN

2151-2396

Language

en