This document summarizes preliminary results from a study measuring the attitudes of journalism and public relations students in Australia towards reporting and communicating about suicide. It found that: - Journalism students generally aligned well with evidence-based recommendations for reporting on suicide, though alignment was lower on some issues like including location details. Their exposure to guidelines through university varied. - Public relations students also generally agreed with recommendations, with lower alignment around some issues. Their exposure was also mixed. - Both groups reported relatively low stigma of suicide and felt university coverage was important, with journalism students having more exposure through courses than public relations students.

1. Views and attitudes regarding the
reporting and communication about
suicide held by journalism and public
relations students in Australia
Report prepared by Jaelea Skehan, Ross Tynan and Renate Thienel for the Hunter
Institute of Mental Health and the Mindframe National Media Initiative.

2. About the research
• Within the suicide literature, there has been extensive research
investigating the relationship between news reporting and suicide. This
research has been used to develop evidence-based recommendations
regarding how to safely report on suicide.
• There has been very little research, however, looking at how the media,
public relations and communication professionals or students’ view
these recommendations.
• This research aimed to measure the attitudes of journalism and public
relations students towards the reporting of and professional
communication about suicide; their previous exposure to suicide; and
their attitude towards suicide in general.

3. About the research
• This research is complemented by further studies that assess the
knowledge and attitudes of media professionals and public relations
and communication professionals.
• The research has been approved by the University of Newcastle’s
Human Research Ethics Committee, Approval No H-2014-0369.
• This is a summary report based on preliminary results, which have not
yet been peer-reviewed. It has been developed for broader
communication through the Mindframe National Media Initiative.
• Further analysis will be included as part of a peer-reviewed publication.

4. Acknowledgements
• This research forms part of Jaelea Skehan’s PhD study supervised by
Professor Brian Kelly (University of Newcastle), Professor Jane Pirkis
(University of Melbourne) and Associate Professor Myfanwy Maple
(University of New England).
• The research was supported by a team of staff from the Hunter
Institute of Mental Health, including Dr Ross Tynan, Dr Renate Thienel
and Mr Marc Bryant.
• Universities in Australia and the project team working on the
Mindframe National Media Initiative supported recruitment for this
study.

5. The Australian context
• In Australia, evidence-based guidelines for media reporting of suicide have
been developed and disseminated by the Hunter Institute of Mental Health
under the Mindframe National Media Initiative (Mindframe).
• Mindframe is a comprehensive and multi-faceted strategy that targets
media organisations and media professionals as well as the mental health
and suicide prevention sectors, police, courts, film and television, and
universities offering programs in journalism, communication and public
relations. It also offers a StigmaWatch program delivered by SANE Australia.
• Mindframe provides a number of practical resources for universities
offering journalism and public relations programs including case studies,
lecture notes, student resources and other supporting material at
www.mindframe-media.info

6. Research methodology
• People were eligible to participate in the research if they were: (a) over
the age of 18 years; and (b) were currently studying journalism,
communications or public relations at a university in Australia.
• The survey was promoted by the Hunter Institute of Mental Health and
nominated champions from a number of universities.
• Participation was voluntary and all surveys were completed online. At the
end of the survey, participants were provided with an option to go into a
draw (with contact details entered into a separate independent survey) to
win one of ten $50 vouchers.

7. The survey instrument included five sections:
1. Participant demographics, including age, gender, university, year of
study;
2. A 20-item rating scale assessing participants’ level of agreement with
statements about reporting of suicide (for journalism students) or
professional communication about suicide (for public relations
students) suicide;
3. The 16-item Stigma of Suicide Scale (SOSS);
4. Questions relating to participants’ personal and professional
exposure to suicide;
5. Questions about participants’ prior exposure to the Mindframe
program and resources.
Research methodology

8. PART A: Summary of results for
journalism students

9. A1. Participant demographics
Participants: 117 journalism students
attempted the survey, of which 113
(97%) met the inclusion criteria.
Gender: 94 participants identified as
female (83%), 18 identified as male
(15%) and 1 (0.9%) did not complete the
open field.
Culture: Two participants (1.8%) identified as
Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander.
Age: Most participants (92%) were under the
age of 25 years- see Figure 1.
15%
83%
25 years or younger
26 - 35 years
36 - 45 years
46 - 55 years
56 - 64 years
65 years or older
Figure 1. Age of participants (%)

10. A1. Participant demographics
Most participants were studying
journalism at a Sydney University
(UTS = 39%; USYD = 38%) – see Table 1.
Table 1. University where participants were
studying journalism (n), n = 113.
University N
University of Technology Sydney (UTS) 44
University of Sydney (USYD) 43
Griffith University 5
Queensland University of Technology
(QUT)
4
University of Newcastle (UoN) 3
University of Adelaide 3
Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology
(RMIT)
2
Deakin University 1
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
Masters
PhD
Most participants were within their
first (26%) or second (26%) year of
study – see Figure 2.
Figure 2. Year of degree (%)

11. A2. Reporting of suicide
Journalism students were asked rate their level of agreement with a range of
statements about reporting and communicating about suicide, using a 7-point
Likert scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree.
• Tables 2 provides a summary of responses to 16 statements that relate to
current evidence-informed recommendations provided through
Mindframe, and the expected direction of responses based on the current
recommendations, indicated by a green, yellow or red box.
• Table 3 provides a summary of responses to four more general statements
about the frequency and value of reporting about suicide.
• To simplify the reporting of results, the strongly agree and agree as well as
the strongly disagree and disagree categories were combined, with results
in Table 2 and Table 3 presented on a 5-point scale.

12. A2. Reporting of suicide:
Alignment with principles high (>70%)
Strongly
Disagree
or
Disagree*
Somewhat
Disagree
Neutral
Somewhat
agree
Strongly
agree or
agree*
Journalists should ensure information about
suicide (including suicide statistics) is accurate
and confirmed.
2.0% 0% 0% 1%
The media should involve suicide prevention
experts or services in any story about suicide.
2.0% 1.0% 2.0% 13.1%
Adding help-seeking information to stories
about suicide is not helpful.
8.5% 5.6% 1.7% 4.3%
It is important to report about a suspected
suicide quickly, stating it is a suicide or
suspected suicide even if the cause of death
has not yet been confirmed.
12.7% 4.9% 2.9% 4.9%
Table 2: Level of agreement with statements about reporting of suicide, with high (>70%),
moderate (>50%) or low (<50%) alignment to Mindframe recommendations.
97.0%
81.8%
84.7%
74.5%

13. Strongly
Disagree or
Disagree*
Somewhat
Disagree
Neutral
Somewhat
agree
Strongly
agree or
agree*
Stories that involves people who have been
suicidal in the past can be helpful.
4.0% 3.0% 13.0% 17.0%
People in the media can be adversely
impacted when reporting on suicide.
3.1% 4.1% 15.5% 25.8%
The best time to interview people bereaved
by suicide is soon after the death.
13.8% 17.1% 6.7% 1.7%
Reports should show images of an Aboriginal
or Torres Strait Islander person who has died
by suicide.
10.3% 16.5% 2.1% 3.1%
A2. Reporting of suicide:
Alignment with principles moderate (>50%)
63.0%
51.5%
62.6%
68.0%

14. A2. Reporting of suicide:
Alignment with principles low (<50%)
Strongly
Disagree or
Disagree*
Somewhat
Disagree
Neutral
Somewhat
agree
Strongly
agree or
agree*
Reports should include the location of a
suicide death in public communication,
especially if it occurs in a well-known
location.
17.5% 24.7% 9.3% 7.2%
If a celebrity dies by suicide, then it is
important to report the death in detail.
18.3% 9.2% 14.7% 9.2%
When reporting on a story that involves
suicide, it is appropriate to use the word
“committed suicide”.
10.1% 23.2% 11.1% 37.4%
41.2%
48.7%
18.2%

15. A2. Reporting of suicide:
Alignment with principles low (<50%)
Strongly
Disagree or
Disagree*
Somewhat
Disagree
Neutral
Somewhat
agree
Strongly
agree or
agree*
Suicide deaths should always be reported by
the media.
20.0% 6.4% 20.0% 32.7%
Reporting on individual deaths by suicide
can increase the risk of suicide in other
members of the community.
28.4% 8.8% 10.8% 32.4%
Stories about suicide should not use the
word ‘suicide’ in the headline, lead or online
search terms.
26.6% 18.3% 16.5% 18.3%
Reports about suicide should not mention
specific details about the method of suicide.
10.9% 8.2% 7.3% 24.5%
Suicide deaths should only be reported
when there is a clear public interest to do so.
17.0% 6.0% 8.0% 21.0%
* Strongly disagree/disagree and strongly agree/agree options have been combined in this report.
20.9%
19.6%
20.2%
41.9%
48.0%

16. A2. Reporting of suicide: general
Strongly
Disagree or
Disagree*
Somewhat
Disagree
Neutral
Somewhat
agree
Strongly
agree or
agree*
Having a regular ‘suicide toll’ in the media
would help reduce suicide.
51.5% 16.5% 19.6% 9.3% 3.1%
Reporting on the broader issue of suicide
will help to reduce suicide.
4.0% 4.0% 9.0% 22.0% 61.0%
Media should report on suicide more often
than they currently do.
18.7% 11.2% 20.6% 25.2% 24.3%
Reporting on individual deaths by suicide
will help to reduce suicide.
23.0% 23.0% 34.0% 14.0% 5.0%
* Strongly disagree/disagree and strongly agree/agree options have been combined in this report.
Table 3: Level of agreement with general statements about reporting of suicide.

17. A3. Stigma of Suicide
Respondents (n=224) were asked to complete the 16-item Stigma Of Suicide
Scale (SOSS), that measures three underlying constructs: Stigma (8 items);
Depression/Isolation (4 Items); Glorification/Normalisation (4 items).
Participants were asked to rate how much they agreed with a series of
descriptions of people who take their own lives (suicide) on a 5-point Likert
Scale ranging from ‘Strongly disagree’ to ‘Strongly agree’ and a mean score
(between 1 and 5) was calculated for each construct as indicated in Table 4.
• For the Stigma construct higher scores indicate higher levels of stigma.
• On the Depression/Isolation scale, higher scores indicate respondents are
more likely to attribute suicide to depression/isolation.
• On the Glorification/Normalisation scale, higher scores indicate that
respondents are more likely to glorify or normalise suicide.

18. Stigma
Isolation/
Depression
Glorification/
Normalisation
Journalism students (this research-unpublished) 1.73 3.85 2.03
Public relations students (unpublished) 1.79 4.09 1.98
Public relations professionals (unpublished) 1.58 3.67 1.98
Journalism professionals (unpublished) 1.61 3.54 1.91
Australian community* (published research) 2.19 4.11 2.45
Medical students* (published research) 2.06 3.50 1.85
Table 4: Mean Stigma of Suicide construct scores and comparative research.
In general, journalism students had comparatively low scores on the stigma construct, and higher
scores on the depression construct, based on responses from other published (and unpublished)
research, however caution should be exercised when comparing different research samples.
A3. Stigma of Suicide

19. A4. Exposure to suicide (personal)
Half of the participants who answered the question (n=97) reported having
known someone who died by suicide, with 35% of these people reporting
that they were ‘close’ to at least one person who died by suicide.
Figure 4. Have you been close to someone who died by suicide (%)?Figure 3. Do you know anyone who died by suicide (%)?
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Yes
No
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
Yes
No

20. A4. Exposure to suicide (university studies)
YES
NO
Coverage of reporting on
suicide was most
commonly reported to
occur in tutorials (>50%),
but also discussed in
lectures and class
assessments. Participants
could select more than
one option – see Figure 5.
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%
Guest lectures
Assignment
Usual lectures
Tutorial
Figure 5. Exposure to reporting of suicide and guidelines (%)?

21. YES
NO
* Participants could select more than one option
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
Not
important
Somewhat
important
Important Very
important
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
Not relevant Somewhat
relevant
Relevant Very
relevant
A4. Exposure to suicide (university studies)
Figure 6. Importance of university coverage (%)? Figure 7. Relevance of university coverage (%)?
Participants felt that university exposure to reporting on suicide was very
important (see Figure 6) and at least somewhat relevant (see Figure 7) to the
journalism course.

22. A5. Awareness of Mindframe resources
YES
NO
Of the participants who
were aware of Mindframe,
they reported exposure via
the journalism course
(53%) or through a website
search (47%). People could
select more than one
option – see Figure 8.
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%
Journalism/Communications course
Guest lecture at university
Work in the media
Social media
Website search
Figure 8. Exposure at University to Mindframe principles and resources (%)?

23. PART B: Summary of results for
public relations students

24. B1. Participant demographics
Participants: 103 participants
attempted the survey, of which 93
(90%) met the inclusion criteria.
Gender: 81 participants identified as
female (87%), 12 identified as male
(13%).
Figure 9. Age of participants (%)
Culture: No participants identified as
Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander.
Age: Most participants (95%) were
under the age of 25 years – see
Figure 9.
13%
87%
25 years or younger
26 - 35 years
36 - 45 years

25. B2. Communication about suicide
Public relations students were asked rate their level of agreement with a
range of statements about reporting and communicating about suicide, using
a 7-point Likert scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree.
• Table 5 provides a summary of responses to 15 statements that relate to
current evidence-informed recommendations provided through the
Mindframe Initiative in Australia, and the expected direction of responses
based on the current recommendations, indicated by a green, yellow or
red box.
• Table 6 provides a summary of responses to five more general statements
about the frequency and value of reports and professional communication
about suicide.
• To simplify the reporting of results, the strongly agree and agree as well as
the strongly disagree and disagree categories were combined, with results
in Table 1 and Table 2 presented on a 5-point scale.

26. B2. Communication about suicide:
Alignment with principles high (>70%)
Strongly
Disagree
or
Disagree*
Somewhat
Disagree
Neutral
Somewhat
agree
Strongly
agree or
agree*
Public relations and communication
professionals should ensure information about
suicide (including suicide statistics) is accurate
and confirmed.
0% 0% 1.2% 4.8%
Public relations and communication
professionals should involve suicide prevention
experts or services in any communication or
campaign about suicide.
0.0% 0.0% 4.7% 10.6%
Adding help-seeking information to
communication involving suicide is not helpful.
9.5% 7.1% 4.8% 1.2%
Table 5: Level of agreement with statements about communication and reporting about suicide, with
high (>70%), moderate (>50%) or low (<50%) alignment to Mindframe recommendations.
94.0%
84.7%
77.4%

27. Strongly
Disagree or
Disagree*
Somewhat
Disagree
Neutral
Somewhat
agree
Strongly
agree or
agree*
It is important to issue public
communication about a suspected suicide
quickly, stating it is a suicide or suspected
suicide even if the cause of death has not
yet been confirmed.
17.4% 11.6% 4.7% 3.5%
Public communication that involves people
who have been suicidal in the past can be
helpful.
0.0% 3.5% 11.6% 23.3%
People working in public relations and
communication can be adversely impacted
when reporting on suicide.
0.0% 2.4% 14.6% 37.1%
B2. Communication about suicide:
Alignment with principles moderate (>50%)
62.8%
61.6%
51.2%

28. B2. Communication about suicide:
Alignment with principles moderate (>50%)
Strongly
Disagree or
Disagree*
Somewhat
Disagree
Neutral
Somewhat
agree
Strongly
agree or
agree*
The best time to interview/communicate
professionally to people bereaved by suicide
is soon after the death.
19.5% 9.2% 9.2% 2.3%
There are no specific cultural considerations
to apply when communicating about
suicide.
21.7% 6.0% 8.4% 8.4%
Professional communication, including
media reports, about suicide should not
mention specific details about the method
of suicide.
4.4% 11.0% 15.4% 18.7%
59.8%
55.4%
50.5%

29. B2. Communication about suicide:
Alignment with principles low (<50%)
Strongly
Disagree or
Disagree*
Somewhat
Disagree
Neutral
Somewhat
agree
Strongly
agree or
agree*
Suicide deaths should always be reported by
the media.
24.2% 13.2% 27.5% 7.7%
Reporting on individual deaths by suicide
can increase the risk of suicide in other
members of the community.
22.1% 15.1% 16.3% 27.9%
When developing digital content that
involved suicide, public relations and
communication professionals should follow
similar guidelines to those used by the
media.
15.6% 5.6% 16.7% 25.6%
* Strongly disagree/disagree and strongly agree/agree options have been combined in this report.
27.5%
18.6%
36.7%

30. B2. Communication about suicide:
Alignment with principles low (<50%)
Strongly
Disagree or
Disagree*
Somewhat
Disagree
Neutral
Somewhat
agree
Strongly
agree or
agree*
It is important to include the location of a
suicide death in public communication,
especially if it occurs in a well-known
location.
20.5% 15.7% 14.5% 7.4%
If a celebrity dies by suicide, then it is
important to communicate about the death
in detail.
24.4% 13.3% 14.4% 7.8%
When communicating about an issue that
involves suicide, it is appropriate to use the
word “committed suicide”.
14.1% 37.6% 20.0% 20.0%
* Strongly disagree/disagree and strongly agree/agree options have been combined in this report.
41.0%
40.0%
8.2%

31. B2. Communication about suicide
Strongly
Disagree or
Disagree*
Somewhat
Disagree
Neutral
Somewhat
agree
Strongly
agree or
agree*
Public relations and communication
professionals have an important role to play
in suicide prevention. (n=263)
0.0% 1.2% 12.8% 25.6% 60.5%
Reporting on individual deaths by suicide
will help to reduce suicide. (n=262)
33.7% 15.1% 26.7% 15.1% 9.3%
Reporting on the broader issue of suicide
will help to reduce suicide. (n=262)
2.3% 1.2% 9.3% 30.2% 57.0%
Having a regular ‘suicide toll’ in the media
would help reduce suicide. (n=260)
45.1% 24.4% 17.1% 6.1% 7.3%
Media should report suicide more often
than they currently do. (n=268)
29.9% 9.2% 14.9% 20.7% 25.3%
* Strongly disagree/disagree and strongly agree/agree options have been combined in this report.
Table 6: Level of agreement with general statements about communication and reporting about
suicide.

32. B3. Stigma of Suicide
Stigma was measured using the 16-item Stigma Of Suicide Scale (SOSS).
The SOSS scale measures three underlying constructs: Stigma (8 items);
Depression/Isolation (4 Items); Glorification/Normalisation (4 items).
Participants were asked to rate how much they agreed with a series of 16
single-worded items describing someone who takes their own life (suicide).
Agreement was measured on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from ‘Strongly
disagree’ to ‘Strongly agree’. Mean agreement scores for each construct are
shown on Table 7.
• For the Stigma construct, higher scores indicate higher levels of stigma.
• On the Depression/Isolation scale, higher scores indicate respondents are
more likely to attribute suicide to depression/isolation.
• On the Glorification/Normalisation scale, higher scores indicate that
respondents are more likely to glorify or normalise suicide.

33. Stigma
Isolation/
Depression
Glorification/
Normalisation
Public relations students (this research; unpublished) 1.79 4.09 1.98
Journalism students (unpublished) 1.73 3.85 2.03
Public relations professionals (unpublished) 1.58 3.67 1.98
Media professionals (unpublished) 1.61 3.54 1.91
Australian community* (published research) 2.19 4.11 2.45
Medical students* (published research) 2.06 3.50 1.85
Table 7: Mean Stigma of Suicide construct scores and comparative research.
In general, public relations students had comparatively low scores on the stigma and
glorification constructs, and higher scores on the depression construct, compared to other
research, however caution should be exercised when comparing different research
samples.
B3. Stigma of Suicide

34. 0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
B4. Exposure to suicide (personal)
More than a half of participants (58%) who provided a response to this question
(n=81) reported that they had known someone who died by suicide. Of these,
almost one-third (32%) indicated that they were ‘close’ to at least one person
who died by suicide.
Figure 11. Have you been close to someone who died by suicide (%)?Figure 10. Do you know anyone who died by suicide (%)?
YES
NO
YES
NO

35. B5. Exposure to suicide (university studies)
YES
NO
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40%
Usual lectures
Guest lectures
Tutorial
Assignment
Participants reported that
professional communication
about suicide was most
commonly covered in
tutorials (38%), but also
discussed in lectures and
class assessments.
Participants could select
more than one option –
see Figure 12.
Figure 12. Exposure to communication about suicide and reporting guidelines (%)?

36. YES
NO
Participants felt that university coverage of professional communication about
suicide was both important (see Figure 13) and relevant (see Figure 14) to the
public relations course.
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
Not
important
Somewhat
important
Important Very
Important
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
50%
Not relevant Somewhat
relevant
relevant Very
relevant
Figure 13. Importance of university coverage (%)? Figure 14. Relevance of university coverage (%)?
B5. Exposure to suicide (university studies)

37. Support services
Services are available to anyone needing immediate support.

38. Contact Us:
Email:
mindframe@hnehealth.nsw.gov.au
himh@hnehealth.nsw.gov.au
Twitter:
@HInstMH
@MindframeMedia
Websites:
www.himh.org.au
www.mindframe-media.info