Media

Symposium on Suicide and the Mass Media: An International Perspective

27 Apr 2010

 

A symposium to look into how media reports impact suicide rates and suicidal behaviors among vulnerable individuals will be held tomorrow (April 28) at the University of Hong Kong (HKU).

Suicide is a serious public health problem that demands our attention around the world. In Hong Kong, suicide news is often found in the headlines of the mass media with sensational titles and photos. Recently, a new way of reporting suicides by animation has attracted a wide audience via the Internet.

At the symposium, major issues including how these media reports will impact suicide rates in a given community and suicidal behaviors of vulnerable individuals, what the "best practices" of reporting suicide are, what effects these "best practices" will lead to, will be discussed.

Professor Jane Pirkis, Director of the Centre for Health Policy, Programs and Economics at the University of Melbourne, will give an overview of the evidence that presentations of suicide in news and information media can influence copycat acts. Professor Pirkis has been responsible for a number of evaluations of national and state mental health and suicide prevention programs.

Dr. Thomas Niederkrotenthaler, MD, Assistant Professor at the Center for Public Health, Department of General Practice and Family Medicine at the Medical University of Vienna, will share with audience the "best practices" in Austria, which was probably the first country in the world to implement media recommendations for reporting on suicide starting in 1987. The implementation was followed by an improvement in the quality of reporting and a reduction in suicide rates.

Dr. King-wa Fu, PhD, Research Assistant Professor at the HKU Journalism and Media Studies Centre (JMSC), will discuss the influence of the Internet on suicidal behavior especially his current study on animated suicide stories by an emerging new way of News-in-Motion.

Eminent local journalist Ms. May Chan, Director of News & Public Affairs of Commercial Radio and Deputy Chairman of Hong Kong News Executives' Association, will join the discussions. The symposium will be moderated by Professor Paul Yip, Director of the HKJC Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention (CSRP) and Professor of Social Work and Social Administration, HKU.

Media representatives are cordially invited to the event. Details are as follows:

Date: 28 April 2010 (Wednesday)
Time: 3pm to 5pm
Venue: Council Chamber, 8/F, Meng Wah Complex, HKU
Language: English

For more information about the speakers and their topics and to register, please visit:

For enquiries, please contact Rickey Yau at csrp@hku.hk or (852) 2241 5013.