I don’t think it romanticizes anything…it does show the real struggles of real people. Life is not always a bowl of cherries.

This is a tricky issue and I’m really glad you brought attention to it. I’m in the midst of talking about suicide with my students in Abnormal right now and simultaneously have been taking a seminar with Thomas Joiner that includes a substantial focus on media portrayals and discussions of suicide and the ethical considerations that go along with them, so these issues are fresh on my mind (of course, working in a lab that predominantly focuses on studying suicidal behavior, this is not a particularly big shift for me).

I do think that it is important that suicide not be “glorified,” and the ethical guidelines for the media on this topic explicitly state that glorification and undue focus on method are not acceptable practices. The correlational data from the 70s and 80s linking media reports on deaths by suicide to actual increases in deaths by suicide are compelling, although I do think that some points get confused when people look at those numbers.

For one thing, even though trait impulsivity is correlated with suicidal behavior, suicide attempts are rarely actually impulsive, “spur of the moment” decisions. In fact, Witte and colleagues (2008) demonstrated that individuals who are impulsive tend to plan *more* before making attempts than do non-impulsive individuals and Baca-Garcia and colleagues (2001, 2005) demonstrated that attempts that involve little to no planning tend to be less medically serious than are planned attempts. So, my point here is that, while media reports can certain have detrimental effects, rarely if ever will an individual attempt suicide directly in response to a media report. Other risk factors are already present, which does not mean that adding a new one is irrelevant, but does mean that we should not overstate the role of the media in suicide as a general phenomenon. This behavior generally involves substantial planning and preparation and is built up to over time.

A similar point worth noting comes from the research of Gould and colleagues (2005). A lot of people understandably worry that talking about suicide or assessing suicide risk could actually put the idea in peoples’ heads when it might not otherwise be there. In reality, the data do not support this notion. Gould et al (2005) found that assessing for suicide risk in high school students actually decreased negative emotions and thoughts of suicide, particularly for individuals with a history of suicidal behavior and/or current suicidal ideation. Additionally, Rudd et al (2006) found that individuals exposed to a list of suicide warning signs experienced no more negative affect than did individuals exposed to a list of warning signs for heart attacks. There are many others that support this notion and only a small sample of others that hint at the opposite conclusion (e.g., Gould, 2003).

Anyway, sorry for rambling so much, but I suppose my overall point is that, while the media can certainly do some harm by covering suicide poorly, the bigger issue is increasing awareness of the true nature of suicidal behavior. A large number of myths and misinformation persists in this area, but if we can counteract that with accurate, scientifically-based information, the world stands to gain a lot and fears of media impacts will diminish.

My mother told us she was going to kill herself and did. I’ve blogged at Open Salon about this and am now writing a book about suicide as seen through a wide-angle lens, so I’m something of a home-grown expert.

The problem with the media and suicide is that media spotlight and romanticize celebrity suicide but don’t provide ongoing coverage of suicide in the general population as a major cause of death around the world. If this aspect of suicide were brought out of the media closet, perhaps we could begin to reduce the number of suicides.

I worked for National Aliiance for the Mentally Ill. I read an article there titled “When Somoene is Too Bruised to Be Touched.” The purpose was to comfort those left behind by the suicide of a loved one.

My question was always… who or what had bruised the soul. I once had a suicide attempt. I was asked if it was a cry for help. My answer was, it was a SCREAM for help. They released me 2 hours later to the custody of a family member who had been a major part of the problem.

I have never tried again, but many nights I go to sleep praying to die.

I do think we can hold the media responsible for people’s actions. Else, I would be in jail after all those 3 Stooges episodes I watched as a kid.

I DO think the media should think about their actions. It is sad when someone commits suicide, but do we NEED to know why someone died? I like McQueen’s clothing, but I am not interested in his personal life.

Questions regarding media responsibility occur for me much more frequently than celebrities. To me, this is the same sort of irresponsibility that happens when the news shows extensive maps of our troop locations or when a magazine prints all the specs for the body armor, vehicle armor or arms that are being used overseas. Don’t they think SOMEONE might be adding that to their intel?

The above paragraph may seem unrelated, to me it is on target. As I read of McQueen’s death on the internet, links were provided about other celebrity suicides and other unhelpful information. No one (yahoo, msn, cnn, google) provided links about counseling, anti-suicide websites, etc. News channels did not interview therapists (locally or on CNN) about how to prevent, or recognize signs in order to help others. They only talked about McQueen’s lifestyle and speculated about his reasons.