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Media coverage and speculation about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on suicide: a content analysis of UK news
OBJECTIVES: Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been much concern and speculation about rises in suicide rates, despite evidence that suicides did not in fact increase in the first year of the pandemic in most countries with real-time suicide data. This public narrative is potentiall...
Autores principales: | , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
BMJ Publishing Group
2023
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9979592/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36854584 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-065456 |
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author | Marzano, Lisa Hawley, Monica Fraser, Lorna Lainez, Yasmine Marsh, James Hawton, Keith |
author_facet | Marzano, Lisa Hawley, Monica Fraser, Lorna Lainez, Yasmine Marsh, James Hawton, Keith |
author_sort | Marzano, Lisa |
collection | PubMed |
description | OBJECTIVES: Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been much concern and speculation about rises in suicide rates, despite evidence that suicides did not in fact increase in the first year of the pandemic in most countries with real-time suicide data. This public narrative is potentially harmful, as well as misleading, and is likely to be perpetuated by sensational news coverage. METHOD: Using a bespoke database, we analysed the quality and content of print and online UK news (including opinion pieces) on the impact of COVID-19 on suicidality, based on adherence to international recommendations. χ(2) tests were conducted to examine variability in relation to key characteristics (eg, type of publication) and to four ‘restriction phases’ (based on UK government official lockdown measures) over the first 14 months of the pandemic. RESULTS: We identified 372 stories about COVID-19 and suicidality in online and print news between the first UK lockdown (March 2020) and May 2021 (when restrictions were significantly eased in the UK). Throughout this period, over a third of articles (39.2%) and headlines (41.4%) claimed or predicted a rise in suicide, often attributed to feelings of entrapment and poor mental health (especially among young people) and fueled by expert commentary and speculation. Almost a third of reports were rated as being of negative quality (116, 31.2%), and at least half included no signposting to help and support. However, reporting improved in phases of less stringent COVID-19 restrictions and over time, with later articles and headlines including fewer negative statements and predictions about rises in suicides, and greater reliance on academic evidence. CONCLUSIONS: As the longer-term consequences of the pandemic develop, and other national and global events unfold, it is increasingly important that the media, and the wider community of experts shaping its narratives, strive for a positive and evidence-informed approach to news coverage of suicide. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9979592 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2023 |
publisher | BMJ Publishing Group |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-99795922023-03-03 Media coverage and speculation about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on suicide: a content analysis of UK news Marzano, Lisa Hawley, Monica Fraser, Lorna Lainez, Yasmine Marsh, James Hawton, Keith BMJ Open Public Health OBJECTIVES: Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been much concern and speculation about rises in suicide rates, despite evidence that suicides did not in fact increase in the first year of the pandemic in most countries with real-time suicide data. This public narrative is potentially harmful, as well as misleading, and is likely to be perpetuated by sensational news coverage. METHOD: Using a bespoke database, we analysed the quality and content of print and online UK news (including opinion pieces) on the impact of COVID-19 on suicidality, based on adherence to international recommendations. χ(2) tests were conducted to examine variability in relation to key characteristics (eg, type of publication) and to four ‘restriction phases’ (based on UK government official lockdown measures) over the first 14 months of the pandemic. RESULTS: We identified 372 stories about COVID-19 and suicidality in online and print news between the first UK lockdown (March 2020) and May 2021 (when restrictions were significantly eased in the UK). Throughout this period, over a third of articles (39.2%) and headlines (41.4%) claimed or predicted a rise in suicide, often attributed to feelings of entrapment and poor mental health (especially among young people) and fueled by expert commentary and speculation. Almost a third of reports were rated as being of negative quality (116, 31.2%), and at least half included no signposting to help and support. However, reporting improved in phases of less stringent COVID-19 restrictions and over time, with later articles and headlines including fewer negative statements and predictions about rises in suicides, and greater reliance on academic evidence. CONCLUSIONS: As the longer-term consequences of the pandemic develop, and other national and global events unfold, it is increasingly important that the media, and the wider community of experts shaping its narratives, strive for a positive and evidence-informed approach to news coverage of suicide. BMJ Publishing Group 2023-02-28 /pmc/articles/PMC9979592/ /pubmed/36854584 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-065456 Text en © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2023. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) . |
spellingShingle | Public Health Marzano, Lisa Hawley, Monica Fraser, Lorna Lainez, Yasmine Marsh, James Hawton, Keith Media coverage and speculation about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on suicide: a content analysis of UK news |
title | Media coverage and speculation about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on suicide: a content analysis of UK news |
title_full | Media coverage and speculation about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on suicide: a content analysis of UK news |
title_fullStr | Media coverage and speculation about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on suicide: a content analysis of UK news |
title_full_unstemmed | Media coverage and speculation about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on suicide: a content analysis of UK news |
title_short | Media coverage and speculation about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on suicide: a content analysis of UK news |
title_sort | media coverage and speculation about the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on suicide: a content analysis of uk news |
topic | Public Health |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9979592/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36854584 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-065456 |
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