Content Analysis of Military and Civilian Suicide Coverage By AP Wire Service

Background and Purpose:  In 2008, military suicides began to outpace civilian suicides, and concerns about escalating rates were widely reflected in media reports.  According to social learning theory, imitative suicide results from identification with a suicide model.  Certain reporting practices (e.g., public tributes, the use of inappropriate language and images, explicit detail, repetitious coverage) increase suicide contagion through identification, while positive reporting practices (i.e., inclusion of help messages and educational content) can actually reduce suicide (Pirkis et al., 2006).  The Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC, 2007) has adapted recommendations on safe reporting practices. The AP Wire Service is the largest supplier of digital news content to the most widely read online news aggregators (i.e., Yahoo! News, Huffington Post, & Google).  The purpose of this study was to assess the quality of suicide reporting by the AP Wire Service during 2012, a peak year for military suicides.  Specifically, suicide stories were assessed for adherence with the SPRC recommendations, and military and civilian suicide stories were examined for differences. 

Methods: Using a content analysis strategy (Neuendorf, 2001), a search of AP Wire Service stories with “suicide” in the headline or lead paragraph was conducted using Access World News (Newsbank) for 73 (20%) randomly selected days in 2012.  A total of 514 suicide stories were screened for individually identifiable suicides (i.e., at least two details about the decedent), for an eligible subsample of 270.  A final sample of 167 suicide stories was randomly selected and assessed for compliance with constructs derived from SPRC recommendations.  Three coders blind-coded an overlapping sample of 50 articles. Inter-rater agreement was assessed using Krippendorff’s alpha.  Differences in AP Wire Service coverage of military and civilian suicide stories were assessed using t-tests.

Results:  Almost 27% of the suicide stories involved military personnel or veterans.  On average, AP articles violated 11 out of 13 SPRC recommendations on practices to avoid. However, articles about military suicides contained fewer violations (M=10.91, p=.013) than articles about civilian suicides (M=11.34).  On average, the AP articles demonstrated 4 of 8 identified SPRC positive reporting practices. Articles about military suicides included significantly fewer positives (M=3.97, p<.001) than those concerning civilians (M=4.12).  Krippendorff’s alpha ranged from .68 to 1.0.

Conclusions and Implications:  The AP Wire Service did not consistently adhere to media guidelines for responsible reporting on suicide in 2012.  AP stories of military suicide were more likely to adhere to SPRC guidelines than were civilian stories, suggesting widespread coverage of escalating rates positively influenced reporting practices.   Military stories were more likely to miss opportunities to include resource information which might have influenced vulnerable readers to seek help.  Social workers who serve military populations should be aware of the contagion risk of military/veteran suicide, and need to assess the impact of high profile coverage.  The social work profession could play a key role in educating clients, families, and the media on the potential for imitative suicide and in advocating for the widespread adoption of the SPRC guidelines.