The portrayal of suicide in the Portuguese media between 2013 and 2017

Abstract

Suicide is one of the main causes of death in the developed world, and there are multiple reasons behind it (Gandy & Terrion, 2015). Even though the media are not a key variable in this phenomenon, they can be an effective means of prevention. Therefore, it is important to understand the media coverage of suicide. In this paper, we look into the daily Portuguese national newspapers throughout the second decade of the 21st century. With a corpus of 14.243 health news pieces published during that period of time, we seek to identify texts that portray diseases (4651) and, within these, we take a deeper look into suicide news (74 pieces). Our study shows that journalists have the chance to work as a break or alert concerning a risk behavior that can sometimes be fatal, by avoiding sensationalist titles or by referring to support structures for those who need help. And they are failing that role.