Motives to commit suicide: Statistical versus mass-mediated reality

This study, conducted in Israel, compares suicide motives as reported in the press with the official statistics. The analysis is based on two sets of data: the first includes all suicides (n = 4164) recorded from 1972-1988 by Israel's Ministry of Health, and the other contains all press reports n = 1885) relating to suicide over the same period in Israel's two daily newspapers. The news reports were subjected to systematic content analysis. The analysis indicates that press reports over-emphasize certain types of suicide while underplaying others. The effects of independent variables (age, gender, marital status and nationality) on the ascription of motives were different for the press and for the official statistics. Our findings show that the attribution of motives to suicides is socially reconstructed by the press.