How do you perceive the reporting about suicide in the media?

[noname223]

I think it is quite complex for me. There are different ways how the outlets report on this topic. Though I think there is only one way how the media reported on this forum maybe except that unherd article about the NYT article.

I had the thought because of the following: There barely is any reporting about this forum in Germany. I read two articles from very small outlets. One of them was sensationalistic reporting about suicide forums. I translate the title: "Shock-suicide: Live in a suicide forum! Depressive woman kills herself." Furthermore there is a picture of the feet of a corpse as symbolic picture. I find it interesting how the yellow press reported about this forum.

For me it is hypocritical. The yellow press has a lot of skeletons in their closet. I know this about the German yellow press. But from what I have read the British media is even more ruthless concerning ethical standards. The biggest German (yellow press) outlet might have been involved in the suicide of the ex-girlfriend of a soccer player. I won't go into details but they play very dirty. And then they posture themselves as fighter for human lives and decency, The Bild-Zeitung leaked private chats of a child whose siblings were killed some minutes ago. That is so fucking disgusting.

However I think they would report in the same way as the British media about this forum.
I think suicide also especially on youtube is used for clickbait. I can remember there was a title like "person xyz killed himself here is the footage". Then the video showed nothing but still gota several houndred thousands of clicks. And the mass audicence complained not being able to gawk at people in their most intimate and darkest seconds on earth.

I think I once saw the corpse of Chester Bennington as a thumbnail of a youtube video. I am surprised that youtube allows showing suicides. When I was a stupid teenager I watched the suicide Budd Dwyer on youtube. It was very explicit. I would not recommend to do the same.

Personally I have to problem to call suicide a tragedy. However this does not mean everyone has to be kept alive forever against their will. This is something the media often forgets. I hate to follow the German assisted suicide debate because the media is way more paternalistic than the highest court. Moreover they act against the will of the German people who want liberal assisted suicide laws. I stopped to read most articles for the sake of my own well-being.

One of my favorite outlets makes sometimes very detailed reports about the fate of individuals. For example about the trans-woman who self-immolated in the capital and got mocked for it on social media. Then I remember an article about a writer who committed suicide. Futhermore about an Austrian doctor who killerd herself because of online and real life harassment. I had the feeling they treated these people with respect and respected their will. However I cannot remember all the details of it. I think they captured very well how unfair life treated them and gave them a part of their dignity back.

Though despite these very empathetic articles their reports on assisted suicide are horrendous. I have the feeling they only care when someone already died and they want to retrospectively help them. However people like me who are desperate for years and experience many many years of suicide thoughts are left out in debates about assited suicide. As if they could not imagine how bad life can become for people in general. Not even reporting about such tragic cases makes it clear for them how desperate some people are. On the other hand I don't think all of the cases I mentioned would have wanted to go with asisted suicide. Well I prefer the official and secure way so much more. All the anxiety of ending up as a vegetable would have an end. I am even ready to try shit out. I am doing this for years. Still psychiatrists don't take me serious. I think the potential of having a way out delivers psychological relief for many many people who suffer for years of persisting suicidal thoughts. The notion there is a way out when one reaches his/her limits gives strength to these people. This is at least my perception.

There are often suicide hotlines and standard phrases one reads beneath such articles. I am not sure on the empirical evidence whether they help. At least for me they don't. I was in clinics several times tried so much things. I don't think that an hotline could help me when therapists can't.

 

[Forever Sleep]

Most of the articles I've read have contained the following:

- Usually it's someone young and they pretty much always are described as having had a bright future ahead of them- cruely cut short.

- Suicide will be described as something that happened to them- as in- 'a life cruely cut short'- rather than a free choice that they made.

- Their families are utterly shocked- even if they had been suffering with depression for years.

- Quite often- if they do disclose that the person had been struggling, those around them will say they are still shocked because they seemed to have been doing better. My personal theory on this is that by then- they'd probably already made the decision to go. Many of us feel 'happier'. Some are even excited when they know their time here is drawing to a close. Plus, I suspect people also like to reassure themselves that there weren't signs that they missed- they weren't to know they would do this- so- they couldn't have helped/stopped them.

- Mental illness is usually blamed.

- Usually the internet is blamed- most especially if they used something like SN.

- They will often say that the person was under extreme stress. Either it will seem like the individual made an impulsive decision or- that they were struggling with undiscovered and/or untreated long term mental illness eg. depression. They will never make it appear that the person had spent a great deal of time making the decision to do this and planed it- which I would suggest is far more likely.

- Places like this will be blamed. ESPECIALLY if the person is young. They'll make it seem like the person just happened to stumble onto a forum like this and that they were then coaxed into doing it. Utter rubbish of course. Who would look for a site like this if they weren't suicidal to begin with? (For starters.) Plus- NO ONE here encourages a person to choose something that they haven't already made up their minds on.

- They'll likely ignore the fact that the person either decided not to reach out for help- EVERYONE must realise that 'help' is available- those hotlines are plastered everywhere. Or- they won't report that the person DID reach out for help and it (obviously) failed. They probably won't bother clarifying whether the person was receiving any treatment.

- Quite often, they won't even try to guess why the person did it- it will always seem like a mystery.

 

[TooConscious]

It's a shame we don't see more positive stories where a family get together and make a terminally I'll loved ones departure peaceful. Or *honourable man leaves hospital to check out on his own terms" , big corporations always trying to create fear so I try to stay away from that stuff nowadays best I can actually the last time I looked in the sun toilet rag, it had about dave Courtney's death where he shot himself, and misrepresented the situation.

 

[sserafim]

Personally, I don't think that the media has any business in reporting about suicides. It's no one's business. People should have privacy. Also, why is suicide so stigmatized? It's just another way to die, it's just another form of death.

 

[SomewhatLoved]

I live in Canada, and it's definitely a hot topic here because the government has been in the process of legalizing assisted suicide where the only reason is mental illness (although even then it would be very restricted and require multiple doctors to sign off on it, history of attempted therapy/treatment/rehabilitation from mental illness).

This came up a few months ago at a family dinner when everyone was talking about politics. What most people agreed on is that sometimes people have valid reason to end their life, but that often what they leave behind negatively affects other people (i.e., the common notion that suicide is "selfish"). The media in my country seems to mirror this. The general consensus of the public is that people should receive treatment because we are a society and everyone is dependent on one another in some way, and that loss is hard for the people surrounding you.

I feel like my problem with this is that it is an issue of bodily autonomy. I don't see suicide as any different from cosmetic surgeries or other voluntary/non-essential medical procedures. If people want reconstructive plastic surgery or LASIK eye surgery because it will improve their quality of life, who am I to judge. I have been suicidal since I was 9, and I am now 19. I've been suicidal for a little over half my life, and if anything the feelings have only become more intense and I have gone from only idealizing it to actively pursuing it, because the truth is I feel like I've never had a great quality of life, and I don't see much room for recovery.

Nearly everyone in my family has a history of mental illness, every direct male relative I have has a history of problematic substance use, and the people in my family who are "happy" are on pills to make them happy. My opinion is that the media has no right to say things like "there was still hope for them" or "they had a bright future ahead", because how can they know. There are many people who have been depressed for their whole lives, and who will be depressed for their whole lives. How can the media know these things? How can even our families know these things when we don't let them in on our true feelings out of fear of being involuntarily committed to a mental health facility?

 

[Proteus]

I think it only promotes suicide sites more and failed to take them down so far. What it's wrong though, is the heat the suicidal get for it. People being harassed or doxxed in sites like this because the media is unacceptable. It's even worse when the media itself does it, although they probably know how bad it is, because they don't seem to care.

What I really don't like is the hate underage people get when some of them use this place. It's always because media. It's illegal, but it's also forbidden by the site so it's not the site's fault. Media has been very successful in divide people even more. Now, underage people get the blame for "ruining this site" although law can't do anything as long as rules forbid it. They are the most vulnerable group in my opinion and having to restrict the only safe space to talk about mental issues is hard enough, although necessary to keep running this site, but I can only imagine all the hostility making you even more suicidal.

In conclusion, it causes further harm on vulnerable people, but also promotes the site, so people above 18 may benefit from talking here.

 

[ijustwishtodie]

Personally, I don't think that the media has any business in reporting about suicides. It's no one's business. People should have privacy. Also, why is suicide so stigmatized? It's just another way to die, it's just another form of death.

Suicide is stigmatised because people cannot comprehend as to why anybody would kill themselves. They blame the person for being insane instead of blaming society for having cruel systems which are even more cruel for those who are neurodivergent and/or depressed.

Yes, suicide is a form of death but society has always saw death as bad and are unlikely to be convinced otherwise

Anyways, as for the actual thread, with tye reporting of media covering suicide, it just goes to show me that they don't care about a lot of suicidal people at all. They only focus on how minors killed themselves and completely ignore the number of adults killing themselves which just goes to show that they don't care about the lives of suicidal people at all. The only reason why they even care about children killing themselves isn't because of the quality of life that they had but only because of how their brain is wired to be biased for them

All in all, the media just goes to show how people treat suicide and why it's still stigmatised

 

[Tokugawa_Yoshinobu]

Another thing about suicide is that the media only seems to care if famous people and teenagers or very young 20-somethings die. The first group because everyone knows about them and the second one because it is seen as bad when someone dies very young. You know, they can't be used in the workforce and the family is sad.

Also @Forever Sleep pointed out that many articles about suicide try to not explain why somebody killed themselves, shift the blame to unlikely sources or deny agency of the party how has killed themselves. In the case of minors I can understand the last point but in case of adults and especially older adults it becomes silly. I think there is a reason for this:

The media is actively discouraged from making suicide seem appealing in any way like detailing aspects of it and sensationalizing the act. However this seems to include not going into the possible reasons why someone killed themselves or their own reason for killing themselves if they left notes.

Suicide is not supposed not to be made understandable or relatable because it is an active agenda to have it this way. It's the same with ideological views points that are undesirable. It is propaganda in a way.