@article{ref1,
title="'All that followed a death. . .': an alleged celebrity suicide, media discourse and mental health",
journal="International journal of social psychiatry",
year="2020",
author="Banerjee, Debanjan",
volume="ePub",
number="ePub",
pages="ePub-ePub",
abstract="Mortality and morbidity due to suicides have been an ever-growing burden in India. The public response to the understanding of suicidal deaths and popular perceptions  are heavily dependent on media discourse and reporting of such cases. Recently, the  alleged death of a young Indian celebrity due to suicide in India led to a media  debacle that quickly spurred into endless speculations and sensational reporting of  the associated details. Incidents of high-profile suicide often cause varied  perceptions, attitudes and beliefs related to the 'act' that can get further  compounded by misinformation and media-portrayal of the same. Recent cross-sectional  research by Raj et al. (2020) explores the adherence of Indian media reporting of  suicides for a month after the celebrity-death. It reveals that more than 80% of the  news articles deviate from the prevalent Press Council of India (PCI) and the World  Health Organization (WHO) guidelines for media-reporting of suicides. With this  study in the background, the commentary contextualizes its findings in the Indian  socio-cultural scenario, reviews the influence of media on public attitudes toward  suicide, and highlights the need for active media-public health collaboration as a  part of a national suicide prevention strategy. Suicides need to be viewed beyond  just the 'medical or psychological health' model through a more holistic  biopsychosocial framework.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0020-7640",
doi="10.1177/0020764020985572",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0020764020985572"
}