Have News Reports on Suicide and Attempted Suicide During the COVID-19 Pandemic Adhered to Guidance on Safer Reporting?
This article has been Reviewed by the following groups
Listed in
- Evaluated articles (ScreenIT)
Abstract
Abstract. Background: Associations between sensational news coverage of suicide and increases in suicidal behavior have been well documented. Amid growing concern over the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on suicide rates, it is especially important that news coverage adheres to recommended standards. Method: We analyzed the quality and content of print and online UK news reports of possible COVID-19-related suicides and suicide attempts in the first 4 months of the pandemic ( N = 285). Results: The majority of reports made explicit links between suicidal behavior and the COVID-19 pandemic in the headline (65.5%), largely based on statements by family, friends, or acquaintances of the deceased (60%). The impact of the pandemic on suicidal behavior was most often attributed to feelings of isolation (27.4%), poor mental health (14.7%), and entrapment due to government-imposed restrictions (14.4%). Although rarely of poor overall quality, reporting was biased toward young people, frontline staff, and relatively unusual suicides and, to varying degrees, failed to meet recommended standards (e.g., 41.1% did not signpost readers to sources of support). Limitations: This analysis cannot account for the impact of reporting on suicide. Conclusion: Careful attention must be paid to the quality and content of reports, especially as longer-term consequences of the pandemic develop.
Article activity feed
-
-
SciScore for 10.1101/2021.04.19.21255736: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
NIH rigor criteria are not applicable to paper type.Table 2: Resources
No key resources detected.
Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).
Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:4.1 Strengths and Limitations: This study is the first systematic analysis of news coverage of COVID-19 related suicides in the UK at a time of heightened concern and speculation over the effects of the pandemic and associated restrictions on mental health (Brooks et al., 2020; Holmes et al., 2020), in the country with the highest …
SciScore for 10.1101/2021.04.19.21255736: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
NIH rigor criteria are not applicable to paper type.Table 2: Resources
No key resources detected.
Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).
Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:4.1 Strengths and Limitations: This study is the first systematic analysis of news coverage of COVID-19 related suicides in the UK at a time of heightened concern and speculation over the effects of the pandemic and associated restrictions on mental health (Brooks et al., 2020; Holmes et al., 2020), in the country with the highest overall death toll during the first wave of the pandemic relative to comparable countries (Raleigh, 2020). Our findings are based on a well-established, evidence-informed media monitoring database which captures all media reports of suicides and attempted suicides in the UK (Fraser et al., 2017). It may not, however, capture all important aspects of reporting, particularly in relation to the novel and rapidly evolving challenges precipitated by the pandemic and social distancing restrictions. Our understanding of what constitutes ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ news coverage of COVID-19 related suicidal behaviour may well require further refinement as time - and the pandemic - progress. Importantly, the perspectives of those most likely to be affected by such coverage should also be reflected in this process. 4.2 Future research: Ongoing research is needed to assess the quality and content of possible COVID-19 related suicide reporting over the longer-term, with feedback to those responsible where this deviates from recommended standards. More research is also needed to investigate the potential beneficial effects of media coverage of COVID-19 and suicide...
Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.
Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.
Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.
Results from rtransparent:- Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- No protocol registration statement was detected.
Results from scite Reference Check: We found no unreliable references.
-
