Skip to main content
Published Online:https://doi.org/10.1027//0227-5910.22.4.170

Summary: Many studies indicate that the suicidal behavior in a society is affected by the suicide stories publicized. Cultural valuations appear in the way media present self-destruction. The reflection of sociocultural attitudes toward suicide can be observed and analyzed in these texts. In this research, reports about suicide (n = 2203) in the years from 1981 and 1991 taken from daily newspapers were gathered—three central and regional papers in each country. A content analysis was performed of the suicide reports in Hungary (n = 244), Japan (n = 684), the United States (n = 265), Germany (former West n = 458, former East n = 60), Austria (n = 405), and Finland (n = 87), on the basis of the following variables: mentioning of the name, personal data, prominence of the suicidal person, qualification of the suicide, methods, motives, positive or negative consequences, alternatives, and the expression(s) used to refer to the act. After a coding process, an analysis was conducted as to whether any significant differences existed in the rate of the several characteristics in the countries from the point of view of the possible imitation-identification and of the cultural differences are the most important findings interpreted.[sentence is unclear]

References

  • Bandura, A (1986). Social foundation of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Fekete, S, Schmidtke, A (1995). The impact of mass media reports on suicide and the reflected attitudes conveyed toward self-destruction: Previous studies and some new data from Hungary and Germany. In Mishara B (Ed.), The impact of suicide (pp. 156-172). New York: Springer Publishing First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Gould, M, Schaffer, D (1986). The impact of suicide in television movies: Evidence of imitation. New England Journal of Medicine, 315, 690–694 First citation in articleCrossref MedlineGoogle Scholar

  • Hawton, K, Simkin, S, Dees, J et al (1999). Effects of a drug overdose in a television drama on presentations to hospital for self poisoning: Time series and questionnaire study. BMJ, 318(7189), 972–977 First citation in articleCrossrefGoogle Scholar

  • Michel, K et al (2000). An exercise in improving suicide reporting in print media. Crisis, 21, 71–78 First citation in articleLinkGoogle Scholar

  • Phillips, D (1990). Suicide and the media: Research and policy implication. In Diekstra R (Ed.), Preventive strategies on suicide: A World Health Organization state of the art publication (pp. 1-26). Leiden: Brill First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Schmidtke, A, Hafner, H (1989). Public attitudes toward and effects of the mass media on suicidal and deliberate self-harm behavior. In Diekstra R (Ed.), Suicide and its prevention (pp. 313-328). Leiden: Brill First citation in articleGoogle Scholar