The Press Coverage of Celebrity Suicide and the Development of Suicide Frequencies in Germany

Abstract

The existence of the so-called “Werther effect” is well confirmed, and there are several recommendations on how the media should (not) report suicide to minimize the risk of copycat behavior. Unfortunately, very little is known about how suicide is actually reported. The article examines the German press coverage of six celebrity suicides with respect to compliance with guidelines on suicide reporting and analyzes changes in suicides in the wake of the reporting. It concludes that German media do not respect the recommendations in a substantial number of their articles. In addition, a significant increase in suicides and similar suicides is found.

Notes

¹ Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Der Spiegel, Stern, Bild, Bunte, Die Zeit.

² http://www.spiegel.de/suche

³ “Politics,” “sports,” “music,” “TV/film/theatre,” “literature,” and “society.”

⁴ .

⁵ Succession of weekdays was adjusted to the year of celebrity suicide.

⁶ Suicide data for the year 2010 were not available at the time when the present study was conducted. That is why, for the case of football goalkeeper Robert Enke, the respective average was calculated on the basis of the years 2007 and 2008.