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Cited by 12Suicide and Self-Harm StudiesJournalism and Media StudiesHomicide, Infanticide, and Child Abuse

Quality of Media Reporting of Suicide in Nepal

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Sharma, Pawan, Timasina, Ravi Raj, Singh, Swarndeep, Gyawali, Shreeya, Marahatta, Kedar, Arafat, S. M. Yasir·2022·Psychiatry Journal
DOI 10.1155/2022/5708092PMC PMC9282984
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Abstract

Objectives. Suicide is a major public health concern. Sensible media reporting of suicide is one of the important prevention strategies. There has been no report assessing the quality of media reporting of suicide in Nepal. We aimed to assess the quality of newspaper reporting of suicide in Nepal against the World Health Organization (WHO) reporting guidelines. Methods. We undertook a content analysis study of articles from the online archives on reporting of suicide deaths in six English language (daily or weekly) newspapers published in Nepal over the two-year duration from a period between January 1, 2019, and December 31, 2020. Also, we compared them with the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines. Results. A total of 165 English newspaper articles reporting on suicide were analyzed. 163 (98.8%) of news were published in the main section of the newspaper, and the mean length was 17.6 sentences. The name and age of the person who died of suicide were mentioned in about 69.1% ( n = 114 ) and 53.3% ( n = 88 ) articles, respectively. The most common method of suicide reported in the news articles was hanging (45.5%, n = 75 ), followed by poisoning (11.5%, n = 19 ). About 97.6% ( n = 161 ) of news articles violated the recommendation provided in the WHO guidelines. Conclusions. The adherence to the WHO guidelines for media reporting of suicide in Nepal was found to be poor, with a large majority of news reports having at least one potentially harmful media characteristic. Only a small minority of news reports included potentially helpful information to prevent suicide.

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  • Sharma et al. (2022) show the importance of ethical standards in sensitive reporting in Nepal.

    “Sharma et al. (2022), for example, show the importance of ethical standards in sensitive reporting in Nepal.”

    From Sensational Headlines, Engagement, and Credibility in Nepal’s Online News (2025) · cites this paper as Sharma et al. (2022)

  • Headline sensationalism may be topic-sensitive; audience tolerance for click-oriented framing differs by topic.

    “The findings further suggest that headline sensationalism may be topic-sensitive.Although this study sampled across politics, business, society, and entertainment, it did not conduct a full topic-controlled model.Nevertheless, prior research indicates that audience tolerance for click-oriented framing differs by topic.”

    From Sensational Headlines, Engagement, and Credibility in Nepal’s Online News (2025) · cites this paper as Sharma et al. (2022)

    The Discussion says rare suicide events receive more media attention because news professionals may consider them more sensational. It does not address headline framing or whether audiences tolerate click-oriented headlines differently across topics (searched: audience tolerance, click-oriented framing, and topic differences). (LLM, conf=0.76)

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Authors
Sharma, P., Timasina, R. R., Singh, S., Gyawali, S., Marahatta, K., & Arafat, S. M. Y.
Affiliations
  • Patan Academy of Health Sciences (NP)
  • Gandaki Medical College (NP)
  • All India Institute of Medical Sciences (IN)
  • North East London NHS Foundation Trust (GB)
  • World Health Organization (CH)
  • Enam Medical College & Hospital (BD)
Corresponding author
Sharma, Pawan
ORCID
Venue
Psychiatry Journal
Publisher
Wiley
Published
2022-07-07
Volume
2022
Pages
1-5
ISSN
  • 2314-4327 (ISSN-L)
  • 2314-4335
DOI
10.1155/2022/5708092
PMC
PMC9282984
OpenAlex
W4284675827
Cited by
12
References
2
Citations by year
2025: 5 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 1
FWCI
2.74
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Psychiatry Journal (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Greater South Information System
Funders
World Health Organization
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Suicide and Self-Harm Studies
  • Social Sciences › Communication › Journalism and Media Studies
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Homicide, Infanticide, and Child Abuse
Keywords
suicide reporting, media coverage of suicide, newspaper articles, suicide prevention, Nepal, suicide methods

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