ONE novel thrust the 24-year-old Johann Wolfgang von Goethe into the limelight in 1774: “The Sorrows of Young Werther.” Although first published anonymously, the novel eventually brought Goethe fame, something he fought to sever himself from in his later years.
“The Sorrows,” an epistolary novel, follows the letters of the young and sensitive artist Werther who fell in love with a woman named Charlotte, who was already engaged with Albert. To cut the story short, the hurt and unrequited Werther retreated from the triangle and took his own life.
More than than being a literary gem, the novel’s cultural impact saw a good number of European youth emulating the character Werther. Depressed and suicidal young men dressed themselves the way Werther was described in the novel and even used the same pistol in taking their own lives. Often, as rumor persisted about the “Werther Fever,” the novel itself was found in scenes of suicide. Authorities responded by banning the novel, the type of clothes Werther wore, among many other things, to cut the wave of copycat killings.
Last week, Cebu City Councilor Niña Mabatid, in her privilege speech, brought to the table the persistent pair of suicide and journalism as a thing to be concerned about. Although the Cebu press has a well placed mechanism for self-regulation with the Cebu Citizens-Press Council at the helm, there is much reflexivity to be considered. Suicides are as much a public health issue as dengue or polio, fairly acknowledged now with the mental health law. Mabatid’s enterprise brought her to a World Health Organization (WHO) 2015 figure that showed 8,761 students in the country have considered suicide as their way out of emotional straits.
With journalists untrained in the nature and context of suicides, plus all the demands of quick breaks, there is much room for missing out the essentials of proper suicide reportage. There is such a term as “suicide contagion,” used to describe the exposure to suicide tales that will trigger copycats. If irresponsible, media plays a big part in that equation.
People premeditating suicide gets a kind of validation from the news. The tales facilitate the consummation of the act.
The WHO had drawn profession-specific guidelines on how to help prevent suicides, one particularly is for journalists. Here are the quick guidelines: 1) Take the opportunity to educate the public about suicides; 2) Avoid language which sensationalizes or normalizes suicide, or presents it as a solution to problems; 3) Avoid prominent placement and undue repetition of stories about suicide; 4) Avoid explicit description of the method used in a completed or attempted suicide; 5) Avoid providing detailed information about the site of a completed or attempted suicide; 6) Word headlines carefully; 7) Take particular care in reporting celebrity suicide; 8) Show due consideration for people bereaved by suicide; 9) Provide information about where to seek help; 10) Recognize that media professionals themselves may be affected by stories about suicide.
With these guidelines, media may not have a need for the City Council to tell them how to go about their job as far as suicide reportage is concerned.