An Analysis of Suicide Reporting in Three in Print Daily National Newspapers – Irish Independent, Irish Examiner and the Herald, over two twelve month periods, 1999 and 2016

Abstract

Suicide reporting can be dilemmatic, whereby the Irish in print newspapers have to make on the spot decisions as to whether they should publish a suicide news story that is in the public’s interest, even it might cause further upset to the families involved. Thereby, suicide reporting can become a dilemmatic issue for the newspaper involved, who has to strike a balance between producing good quality suicide reports which comply with media guidelines or breaching the guidelines and produce poor quality suicide reporting, just to satisfy the public’s curiosity. Therefore, this research aims to analyse suicide reporting in three Irish in print daily national newspapers, over two twelve month periods, 1999 and 2016, so as to analyse the quality, quantity of suicide reporting and to give a retrospective look at how suicide reporting has changed, over two twelve month periods, 1999 and 2016. This dissertation focuses on analysing suicide reporting in three Irish in print daily national newspapers – Irish Independent; Irish Examiner and Herald, so as look at how suicide reporting on can stigmatise and/or sensationalise the issue of suicide in Ireland. This dissertation has met the research aim through a Triangulation research method approach, which is a mix of quantitative and qualitative content analysis research methods. This research has produced an analysis of the relevant literature pertaining to the analysis of suicide reporting, which discusses the use of media guidelines; news frames, news values and images in suicide reporting, in in three in print newspapers – Irish Independent; Irish Examiner and the Herald, over two twelve month periods, 1999 and 2016. This research reveals that whilst the coverage of suicide was high in 1999, it raised awareness of suicide in a negative way because the newspapers did not adhere to media guidelines, which could have an effect on imitative suicide behaviour in vulnerable people, who are susceptible to the way suicide is reported on in print newspapers. The main conclusions which can be drawn from this research is that the high amount of coverage given to suicide in 1999 coincided with the high suicide rate in 1998 and this made suicide newsworthy. Moreover, it can be concluded that the quality of suicide reporting in 2016, in comparison to the corresponding reporting period in 1999, has significantly improved and can be attributed to all three daily national newspaper’s compliance to media guidelines on suicide reporting which are enforced by Headline, the Media Monitoring Programme. This research argues for the continued compliance of the in print daily national newspapers to media guidelines on suicide reporting and to foster a more open and destigmatised attitude towards suicide in the Irish in print newspapers and the general public.