Suicide contagion: unmasking the harmful influence of mass media
Credit: Getty images
Amidst the recent distrust of social media companies, it is essential to recognize that traditional televised media also possess the power to shape public perceptions and behaviours, and should bear an equivalent burden of responsibility. During a congressional hearing in march of this year, Tik Tok’s CEO was bombarded with misinformed accusations of its content damaging children’s mental health. Although social media platforms like TikTok definitely carry risks of harming user’s attention span and procrastination, claims that ‘tiktok challenges are killing our children’ sound like they have a hidden agenda behind them.
For more on the congressional hearing, read: Congress had a lot to say about TikTok. Much of it was wrong.
Ironically, televised media’s monopoly of viewer attention has had equal, if not worse, effects on viewers. In light of current fear of social media, let’s analyse some studies on 3 negative ways mass media has harmed the general population.
1. Fictional: glorification of suicides in media
The effects of romanticising suicide in entertainment have not gone unnoticed, with the WHO having developed guidelines for responsible descriptions of suicide. Nevertheless, the release of the viral Netflix TV show ‘13 Reasons why’, which is based on the suicide of its main character, was associated with a 28.9% increase in teenage suicides in the US.
As a comparison, the global financial crisis of 2008/9 led to a 6% increase in suicides in the US.
2. Non-fictional - ‘Social learning’ from celebrity overdoses and suicides
Non-fiction media is 4.03 times more likely to lead to copycat suicides. This may be due to the social learning principle, which states that people learn what is ‘correct’ according to how they see others similar to them behaving. Studies show that after broadcasting a celebrity’s suicide, suicides are more pronounced among individuals of the same gender, age and ethnicity. Furthermore, the method of the copycat suicides will often resemble the example set by the celebrity – e.g. overdose or gun. Some people, like Malcolm Gladwell in his book ‘Talking to strangers” would argue that most of these additional deaths are not ‘people that would commit suicide later anyway’ but only coupled the idea of suicide with a viable method after social learning from an example on TV!
How long has unrestricted news coverage been normalising suicide and drug use for?
3. Murders increase after televised violence
The social learning effect from the news is so impactful that it’s also able to increase murder and violence rates after televised acts of violence. After a heavyweight championship fight, the murder rate is observed to briefly rise by 12.5%.
4. Decline in mood
Watching negative news in general worsens people’s mood and optimism for the future. During the 2020, a study found that just 2-4 minutes of ‘doom scrolling’ articles on the pandemic worsened people’s mood. This consumption was linked to a worsening in reader’s mental health. The opposite effect was not observed after reading positive media.
Exposure to kindness online can counteract these effects!
There is still hope for unwilling victims of negative media. In May of 2023, the same research group investigating the negative effects of ‘doom scrolling’ found that ‘positive media’ was able to alleviate the mood-worsening effects of ‘negative media’.
The authors conclude that presenting the best of humanity, especially acts of kindness, alongside the worst of humanity in media coverage is less likely to cause viewers harm.
Perhaps social media could handle this task best, with its algorithms currently steering away from hateful ‘Andrew Tate’ content and favouring ‘kind-hearted’ channels like Mr Beast, who donates most of his profit margins to those in need.
I hope you enjoyed reading and hopefully learnt how to take better care of you or your loved one’s mental health. Go about your week investing just a little bit more of your time, effort, love and money in science!
If you are suffering from suicidal thoughts, help is available. Lifeline Australia: 13 11 14
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