Media and Suicide

World Suicide Prevention Day (WSPD) is observed on September 10th every year. Many might have the idea that suicidal cases rarely happen. But do you know? According to the suicide data as reported by the World Health Organization (World Health Organization, n.d.), there is an estimation of 800,000 individuals that are recorded from suicidal death, which is equivalent to 1 suicidal death every 40 seconds. Isn’t that a shocking figure? In fact, the phenomenon of suicide happens every day and it can occur among just anyone regardless of gender, age, race, religion, time, and place.

The phenomenon of suicide does not just involved individuals who died from suicidal actions, rather it also refers to those involved with suicide attempts or individuals with suicidal ideation. There are various factors that contributes to the happening of suicide cases, such as psychological or mental health factors. Nevertheless, not all suicide cases are directly resulting from mental illness, rather the occurrences may also be attributed to factors such as the social environment, relational problems, financial issues and many more. Most of the suicide cases may be resulted from the incapability of individuals to deal with the pressures in life and the view of death as the only solution to end the present suffering. The question is, is the phenomenon of suicide preventable? In fact, the phenomenon of suicide is indeed preventable with the collaboration between all parties. Among the hotly debated issues are the relations between media and suicide.

Do you know? Suicide is a contagious act. What do we mean by contagious? A study on the contagion effect of suicidal acts by Gould and Lake in 2013 found that the concept of suicide can be spread directly or indirectly from one individual to another through the sharing of thoughts, actions or even observation. We can learn on how individuals can be influenced by others through the modelling approach in social learning theory. In short, learning is a result of interaction with the environment, of which individuals learn through their observations.

If we take notice, we could easily observe the coverage of suicide news on the newspaper and social sites. For instance, the coverage of the death of Robbin Williams, one of the famous comedians in the Unites States back in 2014 took the world by shock. The broad coverage of suicidal death of famous Korean singers and K-pop idols, such as Sulli and Goo Hara, also triggered provocation when some loyal fans of the mentioned artists attempted extreme measures for suicide upon announcement of the news. Besides newspaper coverage, dramas or film screenings that convey unhealthy messages through the display of extreme suicide scenes, which may trigger ill feelings or thoughts should also be curbed. Do you know? When 13 Reasons Why, a popular US drama first aired on Netflix in March 2017, it sparked controversy as it was claimed to be the reason behind the increase of suicidal cases by 28.9% among teenagers aged 10 to 17, around a month after the drama was released (Bridge et al., 2020). When carefully examined, there is nothing wrong with the news reports on the occurrences of suicide cases or the insertion of related scenes in productions, if these are done with the aim of raising community awareness. However, excessive coverage that emphasizes details of used tools and the victims’ suicidal acts should be avoided. Such detailed imagery would not be beneficial, instead there is possibility of the materials being used as references for individuals who have suicidal ideation.

The advancement of technology has undoubtedly invited many benefits and advantages, such as easing communication and allow information transfer to be conducted at higher speed. Nonetheless, this progression has also resulted in certain negative impacts, such as the widespread of cyber-bullying phenomena. Unfortunately, the physical hurt inflicted on victims could be observed overtly, but the cyber-bully incidence affects the emotions and mental health of individuals on an unseen aspect. Do you recall the case of the cyber-bullied victim, Thivyaanayagi Rajendran, aged 20 who committed suicide back in May? The victim allegedly took her life after being ridiculed for posting a video on TikTok with her non-Malaysian colleague. Netizens criticized, ridiculed and mocked the victim on social media, besides accusing the victim of being involved relationally with a Bangladeshi man.

Technological advancement has now led to quicker access of social media on finger tips by simply hitting the “like” or “share” button. The spreading of video or invalid news on social media sites with the objective of mocking, cursing, accusing, tarnishing the reputation of others or any actions of sort is a cyber-bullying crime and can be charged under Penal Code and Communications and Multimedia Act 1998. Remember, we do not all have to be “Viral Hero”, rather together we shoulder the responsibility of what has been shared. Think before sharing.

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References:

• Bridge, J. A., Greenhouse, J. B., Ruch, D., Stevens, J., Ackerman, J., Sheftall, A. H., Horowitz, L. M., Kelleher, K. J., & Campo, J. V. (2020). Association between the release of Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why and suicide rates in the United States: An interrupted times series analysis. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 15(2), 236-243. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2019.04.020

• Forum on Global Violence Prevention; Board on Global Health; Institute of Medicine; National Research Council. Contagion of Violence: Workshop Summary. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 2013 Feb 6. II.4, THE CONTAGION OF SUICIDAL BEHAVIOR. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK207262/

• World Health Organization. (n.d.). Mental Health Suicide Data. https://www.who.int/mental_health/prevention/suicide/suicideprehttps://www.who.int/me ntal_health/prevention/suicide/suicideprevent/en/vent/en/