Online media reporting of suicidal behaviour in Ghana: Analysis of adherence to the WHO guidelines
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Date
2021
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
SAGE
Abstract
Background: Irresponsible media reporting of suicide is a potential risk for copycat suicide. There is a paucity of studies
from sub-Saharan Africa on the quality of media reporting of suicide.
Objectives: We assessed the compliance of Ghanaian online media outlets with the World Health Organization
(WHO) guidelines for media reporting of suicide.
Methods: We searched 10 local media outlets with strong online presence in Ghana, to identify suicide-related news
reports from 2000 through 2019. We applied summative content analysis and chi-square (χ2 ) test to the data.
Results: We included 288 news reports, of which 261 (90.6%) were completed suicides, 7 (2.4%) were attempted
suicides and 20 (6.9%) were homicide suicides. Most of the news reports failed to comply with the WHO guidelines:
92.7% mentioned the specific method of the suicide act, 82.6% included ‘suicide’ in the headline and 55.6% included
photos of the victims. The χ2
tests indicated that privately owned media outlets were more likely than publicly owned
to post a photo of the victim, χ2
( )1 =17.37, p<.001, and report the incident location in the headline, χ2
( )1 =15.00,
p<.001. However, generally, there were no statistically significant relationships between the quality of reporting and
media outlet ownership. Each of the 288 reports failed to mention any of the potentially helpful features recommended
by the WHO guidelines.
Conclusion: Regardless of the ownership of the media outlet (whether private or publicly owned), mostly, the online
reportage of suicidal behaviour in Ghana deviates sharply from the international recommended best practice by the
WHO.
Description
Research Article
Keywords
Attempted suicide, completed suicide, Ghana, online media, sub-Saharan Africa, suicide reporting