How to avoid your suicide becoming the news

[Avicii]

I mean how the fuck ?? I get it your dead what to care but stil I wouldn't want my death plastered all over the news this was page one on the Daily Mail website

Speculative - hanged in bathroom partial or full I'm going with partial

Company director's wife, 30, hanged herself in her bathroom after postnatal depression left her wrongly fearing social services would take away her newborn baby


A company director's wife hanged herself after a severe bout of post-natal depression that left her wrongly fearing the authorities would take away their newborn baby, an inquest heard yesterday.

Former beauty therapist Magdalena Honour, 30, had been 'blooming' in the days before her daughter was born but after the birth began to worry she couldn't cope when breastfeeding her.

Mrs Honour was given anti-depressant medication, but her family claimed healthcare professionals were either 'dismissive' or regarded her a 'nuisance' and she began to self-harm.


Last February 24, just seven weeks after the child was born, she was found hanged in the bathroom of her home in Bredbury, Greater Manchester, by her mother-in-law.

At the time her husband Tom, also 30, who runs a powder coating company, was serving as best man at a friend's wedding. He was too upset to attend the inquest.

Polish born Mrs Honour met her husband through friends in 2010 and married six years later.

 

[Lra888]

I worry about this too. Especially since the author had no insight into her personal thoughts/ motivation and just speculated. PPD likely had something to do with it but i'm sure there were many other factors.

 

[zadig777]

lol
these kind of things shouldn' be posted in news
its terrible
if u are celebrity yes,but not this..

 

[Sayo]

They don't report most suicides. Unless it's a slow news day in a small area, you're notable, you die in a way that causes a public incident, or your suicide can easily be politicised or has some sensational aspect to it, it's unlikely. I have to agree with you that's an exploitative and useless article though.

This is a fear of mine btw because I've been covered in the media before and my hometown is a small place.

edit: If it's a serious concern of yours too, put in your note that you'd like not to be featured in the media and ask your loved ones not to grant media interviews. This has the possibility of coming off strange, so you could frame it as part of a broader wish for privacy/a lack of spectacle after death.

 

[Avicii]

They don't report most suicides. Unless it's a slow news day in a small area, you're notable, you die in a way that causes a public incident, or your suicide can easily be politicised or has some sensational aspect to it, it's unlikely. I have to agree with you that's an exploitative and useless article though.

This is a fear of mine btw because I've been covered in the media before and my hometown is a small place.

edit: If it's a serious concern of yours too, put in your note that you'd like not to be featured in the media and ask your loved ones not to grant media interviews. This has the possibility of coming off strange, so you could frame it as part of a broader wish for privacy/a lack of spectacle after death.

I think maybe this one was reported because the Daily Mail is for snobs and it was a 'Company Directors' partner

 

[Sayo]

I think maybe this one was reported because the Daily Mail is for snobs and it was a 'Company Directors' partner

I have to agree with you. I did notice that it seemed to be a fluff piece motivated by the response of the people around her, more like an obituary than agitating for anything. The Daily Mail is particularly class obsessed from memory too, and people are always fascinated when people with status die.

It looks like an intern wrote it too. Dunno. Think it's just filler so people can shake their heads over what happened to her. That's less likely to be written about some random worker.

 

[Smilla]

I have to agree with you. I did notice that it seemed to be a fluff piece motivated by the response of the people around her, more like an obituary than agitating for anything. The Daily Mail is particularly class obsessed from memory too, and people are always fascinated when people with status die.

It looks like an intern wrote it too. Dunno. Think it's just filler so people can shake their heads over what happened to her. That's less likely to be written about some random worker.

Is it just me or does the British press seem to not adhere to the same journalistic "standards" as the US?

Media here is shite but we don't report on suicides to the same extent—rule is NO reporting at all unless victim was newsworthy in their own right or it was a murder-suicide.

 

[Jon]

Yeah this infuriates me. They condemn suicide yet still print a story with pics knowing full well that it only encourages others to follow suit. I remember the BBC did one about a young blonde girl, showing a full sized picture (against the Samaritan's guidelines) saying she died outside "under no suspicious circumstances", i.e., she hanged herself. The photo has since been removed probably at the fury of the parents. People love suicide stories, (especially those uprighteous bigots who despise it) and they sell; it's like Seneca's famous passage from Trojan Women "the fickle mob hates the crime, but watches anyway". They know all too well that it encourages suicide, they spend all their energy condemning it, yet they print it knowing all too well people want to read it.

 

[Chinaski]

Relatively young, good-looking people with, on paper, great potential or contentment generally make the news because the 'tragedy' is an easy fluff piece to write. Like crime reporting, the sensational stuff is very easy journalism.

If a 45 year old alcoholic throws himself under a train, the headline will instead be about rail disruptions.

 

[Smilla]

Relatively young, good-looking people with, on paper, great potential or contentment generally make the news because the 'tragedy' is an easy fluff piece to write. Like crime reporting, the sensational stuff is very easy journalism.

If a 45 year old alcoholic throws himself under a train, the headline will instead be about rail disruptions.

I'm a 39 year old alcoholic! Can only hope I fall into the 45 year old category.

Thanks for the post.

 

[Jon]

I'm a 39 year old alcoholic! Can only hope I fall into the 45 year old category.

Thanks for the post.

The media never fail to make a suicide "newsworthy". They only have ask a neighbouring busybody for some juicy gossip, however fabricated or distorted it may be, then relentlessly searching for some close up pics just so some churchgoer will go "tut tut tut... she had so much to live for", followed by taking another closer look at the eyes just for some further self-gratification.

 

[Smilla]

The media never fail to make a suicide "newsworthy". They only have ask a neighbouring busybody for some juicy gossip, however fabricated or distorted it may be, then relentlessly searching for some close up pics just so some churchgoer will go "tut tut tut... she had so much to live for", followed by taking another closer look at the eyes just for some further self-gratification.

This is one of the main reasons I want to kill myself...humanity sucks in spades.

 

[ctoan]

we shouldnt take ourself so important

mostly media dont report and even - they will have forgotten about it the day after

 

[Sayo]

Is it just me or does the British press seem to not adhere to the same journalistic "standards" as the US?

Media here is shite but we don't report on suicides to the same extent—rule is NO reporting at all unless victim was newsworthy in their own right or it was a murder-suicide.

I think you are right, Smilla. I know Australia is a lot more rigid about this than the UK, but there seems to be pretty shoddy suicide journalism there. It seems that media guidelines have started to change here though to the effect of suicide can be covered in certain ways as long as something positive can come of its coverage (which is a very generous interpretation of what gets written). So maybe that's in play here.

 

[Jon]

This is one of the main reasons I want to kill myself...humanity sucks in spades.

Cutting out the media helped me a lot, it's relatively easy to do once you get into the habit of avoiding it. Everything I watch is downloaded, everything I read is either related to a hobby or interest, and ad blockers help in blocking out those irritating pics of young people laughing and "jumping into the air" just to sell a useless product that nobody needs, and those pics of the smug-looking executive sitting as if he were the greatest man ever to have been born, just to sell a new Gillette shaver with an added blade (as if three wasn't enough).

 

[Smilla]

I think you are right, Smilla. I know Australia is a lot more rigid about this than the UK, but there seems to be pretty shoddy suicide journalism there. It seems that media guidelines have started to change here though to the effect of suicide can be covered in certain ways as long as something positive can come of its coverage (which is a very generous interpretation of what gets written). So maybe that's in play here.

Really appreciate this reply, Sayo.
Thank you. You always have something thoughtful to say.

 

[Smilla]

Cutting out the media helped me a lot, it's relatively easy to do once you get into the habit of avoiding it. Everything I watch is downloaded, everything I read is either related to a hobby or interest, and ad blockers help in blocking out those irritating pics of young people laughing and "jumping into the air" just to sell a useless product that nobody needs, and those pics of the smug-looking executive sitting as if he were the greatest man ever to have been born, just to sell a new Gillette shaver with an added blade (as if three wasn't enough).

I feel the same. Thank you, Jon for posting.

 

[Angst Filled Fuck Up]

The Daily Mail is the pits. Useless, lazy journalism, full of mistakes and garbage nobody cares about. Kim Kardashian in a latex body suit, apple cider vinegar cures cancer, entire Reddit threads, you name it, they publish it. Fucking leeches.

 

[Jaded]

The Daily Mail is the pits. Useless, lazy journalism, full of mistakes and garbage nobody cares about. Kim Kardashian in a latex body suit, apple cider vinegar cures cancer, entire Reddit threads, you name it, they publish it. Fucking leeches.

That's the mail online but yeah it's all trash.

 

[tothemetalsickness]

I would not care to be honest, just keep me fully dressed and I would not complain lol

 

[Anon1337]

I want it to make the news. I want everyone to know what I've done.

 

[Nem]

Yikes, she did herself in on my birthday. I just want everyone to know what happened to cause my death...carelessly prescribed meds

 

[Trashcan]

They don't report most suicides. Unless it's a slow news day in a small area, you're notable, you die in a way that causes a public incident, or your suicide can easily be politicised or has some sensational aspect to it, it's unlikely. I have to agree with you that's an exploitative and useless article though.

This is a fear of mine btw because I've been covered in the media before and my hometown is a small place.

edit: If it's a serious concern of yours too, put in your note that you'd like not to be featured in the media and ask your loved ones not to grant media interviews. This has the possibility of coming off strange, so you could frame it as part of a broader wish for privacy/a lack of spectacle after death.

Fuck man I'm using a muzzleloader which doesn't require a background check and hopefully people don't try to politicize that. I like your suggestion about stating in your note that you don't want your death in the media.

 

[sb430]

Have low looks, money, and status and you'll most likely not end up in the news.

 

[sadak_the_wanderer]

I believe the Canadian outlet of HuffPo has an article on the factors, and they cite actual research. The factors that tend to push a given suicide into "newsworthy" are:

• Women instead of men
• Young instead of old
• Public, witnessed death instead of private
• Unusual or violent methods versus typical and less grisly
• Strange circumstances surrounding the death
• The believed "cause" of the suicide highlighting some kind of societal or systemic problem

Some of these are outside of our control (the first two), but others are. It is annoying, though, that this is yet one more problem we must face to attain our last goal.