|
•
The role of media: television, newspapers, books, Internet
- Television.
In 1981, German television
broadcasted a series of six episodes, each one starting by
the fictitious suicide of a teenager under a train. During
the 70 following days, among people aged 15-29, 35 railway
suicides were added to an average of 41. In persons aged 15-19,
the incidence of railway suicides increased almost threefold.
Until then, no relationship could be clearly demonstrated.
Fortunately, so to speak, the series was repeated 21 months
later, followed by 25 additional suicides, in proportion
to the audience (12% vs. 19%). The suicides by other means
did not decrease. There was no pit after the peaks. Both recrudescences
were statistically significant and had the same timing, demonstrating
the causal relationship
(Schmidtke 1988).
The German study was enough
to prove that television induced a contagion of suicides;
and that the youngsters were more vulnerable than
others to the display of youngsters taking their life. However,
it did not prove that all the televised suicides are contagious.
For instance, in United States, three such films of were
not followed by contagion in teenagers (Phillips 1987, Berman
1988, Kessler 1988). Perhaps were the American shows less
violent than the German ones. Moreover, the broadcasting
corporations were much more numerous in USA than in Germany,
so that the films were viewed by a lesser part of the population.
No matter whether the actual
suicide victims saw the television series: facts are one thing,
explanations another one.
“If television did not modify behaviors, there would
be no television” acknowledge the television professionals
in other circumstances.
Being limited to people under
twenty, the German demonstration valorizes the presumptions
accumulated since the antiquity.
Contagion is a factor of suicides among others, but never
the only one.
- Newspapers.
In Vienna, the newspapers gave
dramatic descriptions of the suicides in the subway. Then
the suicides expanded without any increase in the traffic
(Etzersdorfer 1992).
“We are no more than
the mirror of society” repeat the media.
The facts related above lead to answer :
“The media turn society into their mirror”.
- Books
After the publication of Final
Exit, the suicide procedures were influenced, but not
the annual incidence of suicides (Velting 1997).
- The
Internet.
On the web, the prevention-oriented
documents concerning suicide are a small minority among three
million websites mentioning suicide.
The Internet promoted suicide pacts,
a form of contagion (Baume 1997, Mehlum 2000).
The publications
demonstrate likelihoods, not fates.
Neither a contagion nor a protection may be predicted in any
individual case.
Of course, contagion is not an exclusive factor.
For instance, a genetic propensity to depression is frequent.
|