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Journalists using social media tributes are ‘romanticising’ youth suicide, say Samaritans

Samaritans-800x800-2Journalists have been warned they are “romanticising” young people’s suicides by using social media tributes in stories.

Mental health charity Samaritans has proposed new guidelines about reporting on incidents of people under 25 taking their own life, after finding news coverage of such incidents is disproportionate to the number of overall suicides in the UK.

Data published by Samaritans found that while young people under the age of 25 account for 11pc of all suicide victims, 33pc of all stories about suicide cover the deaths of people in that age bracket.

The charity has urged journalists to “carefully consider” the inclusion of comments posted on social media websites in the wake of young people’s suicides, as they can “inadvertently romanticise suicidal behaviour”.

In a guest blog for the Independent Press Standards Organisation, Laura Fraser, executive lead of Samaritans’ media advisory service, said the research had also found youth suicides were frequently reported in a “more sensational way” than others.

She wrote: “This could include romanticised language, lots of photographs of the young people or person who has died, outpourings of grief and memorials, and often, intense speculation on possible causes.

“Language and tone are important. Carefully consider the inclusion of comments posted on social media sites, as these can sometimes inadvertently romanticise suicidal behaviour. Examples include: ‘Heaven’s gained another angel’ and ‘You’re at peace now’.

“Extra care should be taken around speculation of causes. For example, when a suicide death is reported and bullying is cited as the cause, it’s helpful to consider the impact on other young people who could be experiencing bullying and may feel hopeless about their own situation – stories including how a young person took their life, lots of photographs, outpourings of grief, revenge messages directed at bullies – can increase the likelihood of others identifying with the person who has died and could lead to suicide contagion.

Added Laura: “It’s particularly important to be aware of the risk of inadvertently promoting the idea of achieving something through death which didn’t seem possible in life. This could encourage the idea of suicide to another young person who is vulnerable and make it feel like a suitable option for them too.”

She also encouraged newspapers to avoid showing photographs of others who have died in their coverage, remind their audience that suicide is preventable and signpost people to sources of support.

Laura added: “This is not about censoring or an attempt to brush the topic of suicide under the carpet. Samaritans does not believe that suicides by young people, or indeed any age group, should not be covered in the press.

“It is simply about giving extra consideration about how these stories are covered because of the extra vulnerabilities of young people.”

Her blog can be read in full here, while current IPSO guidelines on reporting suicide can be found here.

8 comments

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  • July 5, 2018 at 9:52 am
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    I’m sorry but that’s nonsense. Yes, there should be sensitivity but it is getting out of hand now.

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  • July 5, 2018 at 10:33 am
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    Sound advice from the experts. I’ve always felt that copying and pasting social media comments is lazy journalism. There’s rarely any valuable background information, just “wannabees” eager to get their oar in first.

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  • July 5, 2018 at 12:18 pm
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    Wise words that worth heeding although I personally don’t include social media comments in such stories anyway.

    For some reason, it appears to be one thing to pay a personal tribute to someone on social media – quite another to see it turn up in the local paper…

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  • July 5, 2018 at 12:29 pm
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    I believe all forms of social media scrapings should be banned, it’s lazy journalism and offers nothing to a newspaper or websites credibility as a source of professional local news, there will come a tone very soon when the tipping point is reached and RGC overtakes written journalism eroding the quality of a papers content even more than now,then why would anyone bother buying a paper when it’s just old news,rehashed and warmed freely available elsewhere, and with ever decreasing copy sales and readers numbers dropping by the day,what’s left?

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  • July 5, 2018 at 2:32 pm
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    for those in the know about the tragic backgrounds and true circumstances of these suicides some of the tributes would be better off not copied by lazy journalists.
    But how would newspapers fill without them?

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  • July 5, 2018 at 3:26 pm
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    Oh, give over. Two weeks ago they were telling us not to report the facts from the inquests because it’s upsetting. Now they’re telling us not to report on tributes either. Utterly ludicrous.

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  • July 6, 2018 at 9:04 am
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    Wish journalists would stop throwing around the term ‘lazy journalism’ around as it just encourages the public to. Anyone who has worked in local papers over the last ten years will know there are very few lazy journalists about, and those that are tend to be those treading water until they retire or get a hefty redundo package. Of course social media tributes from friends and family have a place when used sensitively and intelligently.

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  • July 6, 2018 at 12:07 pm
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    Local reporter. Sorry, I don’t care how busy hacks are, lifting quotes from social media is lazy and sloppy. Do you check the validity of the quotes or the people making them?
    I have read tributes that are nothing but a few words off a cops press release and a string of social media quotes, not even corrected for their usual dreadful grammar. This might be the new journalism, but it isn’t an improvement.

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