Reporting on Suicide in the Nineteenth Century

Suicide rates dramatically increased in many countries during the 19th century, including in the geographic region of the present state of Austria. Thus, more and more people died by suicide during the course of the second half of the nineteenth century. This established suicide as a mass phenomenon. Importantly for the present project, researchers have speculated that the press may have contributed to this increase back then. However, as it is apparent, it is very difficult to test this idea. Nevertheless, there is already preliminary evidence. Previous research has found a statistical relationship between the quantity of suicide reporting and suicide rates: The more the press reported on suicide in a given year, the higher the suicide rate tended to be. Although such a statistical relationship is consistent with the idea that the press may have contributed to the increase in suicide ratesa phenomenon researchers call the Werther effect, we lack conclusive evidence. Based on this background, this project has two aims: First, the project will conduct the first large-scale content analysis of suicide reporting of Austrian newspapers in the nineteenth century: How did the press report on suicide and how did the reporting change over time? This will be the first study of its kind globally, aiming to enrich our historical knowledge of suicide reporting. Second, the project aims for a more thorough investigation of whether the press contributed to the establishment of suicide as a mass phenomenon. In fact, this project aims to produce more robust evidence that allows more confident claims. As an interdisciplinary investigation at the intersection of communication science and medicine/public health, we will rely on a quantitative content analysis of suicide reporting between 1819 (suicide statistics started to be available) and 1899. Previous empirical research and theorizing on the Werther effect and the concept of RRSan area of research that investigates which individual content elements of suicide articles are related to increases and decreases in suicide rateswill guide the content analysis. We predict that the level of RRS had been low and that the press increasingly utilized a sensational reporting style. Regarding the latter, we predict that this increase in the quantity of low-quality suicide reporting occurred immediately before the dramatic increase in suicide rates. In addition, we will rely on time-series analysis to investigate possible long-term Werther effects. By conducting this large-scale content analysis, we aim at innovations related to our historical understanding of suicide reporting. The project also aims to contribute to the contemporary scholarly debate on RRS as we will theorize on the implications of our findings for current media guidelines on RRS and current reporting practices.

The project "Reporting on Suicide in the Nineteenth Century: Large-Scale Content Analysis and an Investigation of Long-Term Imitative Werther Effects", led by Principal Investigator Assoc. Prof. Dr. Florian Arendt, examined the development of the quality of journalistic reporting over time. More than 14,000 newspaper articles covering suicide were analyzed by seventeen human coders using a codebook that focused on elements of suicide reporting known to strengthen either Werther effects (detrimental imitative effects) or Papageno effects (suicide-preventive effects). The findings indicate that suicides were presented in a highly sensational manner in nineteenth-century newspapers in Austria. Over time, increases were observed in prominence of the suicide reports, the inclusion of method-related and location-related information, and the potential for reader identification. A particularly sharp increase in the quantity of low-quality reporting occurred in the second half of the nineteenth century, which covaried with (and preceded) a rise in the suicide rate. The study provides supporting evidence for a long-term Werther effect and further substantiates the claim that the quality of suicide reporting can influence imitation effects at the societal level. The project provides a vivid and comprehensive picture of the quality of suicide reporting in the nineteenth century, which stands in stark contrast to modern-day reporting. While contemporary reports are generally less sensational and considerably more responsible, there is still room for improvement- particulary regarding the inclusion of suicide-preventive elements such as stories of individuals successfully overcoming a suicidal crisis. The findings support recommendations for responsible suicide reporting in current media guidelines.