Exactly how the media discusses suicide is a topic of frequent debate. Plenty of research has linked media reporting of suicide with an increase in suicidal behaviour, and both the Samaritans and the World Health Organization (WHO), amongst others, have clear (and frequently promoted) guides for journalists on how to report suicide.
But such guidelines are often ignored in favour of insensitivity or sensationalism — especially when the person at hand is a celebrity. Take the recent coverage of the death of Caroline Flack: explicit, deeply intimate details were plastered across tabloids for weeks, with seemingly no thought for how those details would impact readers.
Now a new review, published in the British Medical Journal, has taken a closer look at just how serious the problem is.
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