SDCA Journal of Communication and Media Studies

Abstract

This study determined the rate of compliance of online news organizations according to the 2008 World Health Organization’s Guidelines on Suicide Reporting, as reflected in the news articles pertaining to recent suicide cases in the Philippines. A combined method of qualitative approach for evaluating the compliance and violation of articles, and quantitative approach in measuring the rate of compliance of each media organization, this paper involved five suicidal cases reported in fifteen articles from twelve online news organizations. Percentage and mean were used in the treatment of data. Results discuss the rate of compliance and violation of each news article representing their respective online news organizations based on the nine (9) guidelines from WHO. Five suicide cases involving two provincial cases, two teenage suicides, and a celebrity death were reported by fifteen online news articles (three each suicide case) from twelve news organizations, one of which have three entries for all cases under study. This study also determined the most adhered guideline and the most violated guideline, as well as the news organization with the highest compliance rate and the highest violation rate. Findings also reveal that most news organizations did not follow or comply with the 2008 World Health Organization Guidelines on Reporting Suicide Cases, and there are guidelines that are most adhered or violated by online news organizations when reporting suicide cases in the Philippines.

Keywords: Suicide, compliance rate, violation, media reporting.