Proposed Explanations in the News Media
Note: this is part of the Youth Suicide Rise project.
“The truth is anyone who says they definitively know what is causing it doesn’t know what they’re talking about,” said Ursula Whiteside, a researcher with the University of Washington.
In 2019 there was considerable coverage of the rising youth suicide rates, partly due to an NCSH Data Brief showing a particularly strong increase in 2017 and partly due to a number of published papers on the subject.
In order to determine what possible explanations for the youth suicides rise are being offered the most to the general public, we will look at a small sample of articles from major news organizations published online this year (and freely and directly available).
In our sample there are 6 newspaper or magazine articles (NY Times, The Washington Post, LA Times, TIME, USA Today, NY Post), 7 TV network articles (PBS, CBS 2x, NBC, CNN 2x, FOX), and one article each from leading science and health news outlets on the Internet (namely The Science Times and Healhtline).
Included are only articles offering a possible explanation of the rise in suicides; thus absence from this list does not mean the news organization failed to cover the suicide crises. Some explanations were direct quotes or paraphrases of named researchers, some were journalist summations of the research they have examined.
Results
Out of the 15 articles, nearly all (13) mentioned an aspect of digital technology -- namely social media or smart phones -- and a majority (9) mentioned bullying, especially cyberbullying.
The following other explanations were mentioned multiple times: Sleep 4, Opioids 4, Guns 3, Academic Stress 3, Economic Stress 2, Political Climate 2, Contagion 2.
Two articles also mentioned greater willingness of families and coroners to view a death as a suicide rather than an accident, and one article mentioned better surveillance and reporting; these indicate the important possibility that the rise in youth suicides could be partly or largely an illusion.
The trio of smart interactive devices, social media, and bullying are being offered as the main potential culprits to the public, and they are viewed as connected, with the first two usually combined under the category of digital technology and the last typically seen as closely tied with social media.
Sources
NY Times
The Washington Post
LA Times
Time
USA Today
NY Post
The Science Times
Healthline
PBS
CBS News
CBS News
NBC News
CNN
CNN
Fox News
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