Evaluating News Media Reports On the Blue Whale Challenge ’ For Adherence to Suicide Prevention Safe Messaging Guidelines
Evaluating News Media Reports On the Blue Whale Challenge ’ For Adherence to Suicide Prevention Safe Messaging Guidelines
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评估新闻媒体对蓝鲸挑战的报道 — 遵守自杀预防安全信息指南
DOI：
10.1145/3392831
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发表时间：
2020
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
Chalil Madathil, Kapil
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Roth, Rebecca;Abraham, Jaclyn;Zinzow, Heidi;Wisniewski, Pamela;Chalil Madathil, Kapil
蓝鲸挑战赛（BWC）是一个网络病毒“游戏”，据称鼓励青少年和年轻人采取自残行为，最终可能导致自杀。《生物武器公约》可置于病毒式在线自我伤害挑战这一更大现象的范围内，这种挑战可能通过社交媒体和新闻来源传播。研究表明，自杀是一个全球性的公共卫生问题，受到媒体报道的影响。违反安全信息准则已被证明会增加模仿自杀，特别是在青年和年轻人中。鉴于新闻媒体报道的影响已得到证实，我们分析了150篇报道《生物武器公约》的数字报纸文章，以评估它们是否遵守了预防自杀的安全信息指南。总体而言，81%的文章违反了至少一项与传染病相关的指南，最常见的是将自杀正常化，讨论自杀的方式和耸人听闻。尽管大多数（91%）的文章坚持至少一个健康促进指南，如强调预防，文章没有遵循这些指导方针的深度和全面的水平。通过专题分析，我们还发现了报告中可能存在错误信息的证据，这些文章明确地将许多自杀事件归咎于《生物武器公约》，但证据很少或根本没有。此外，文章通常陈述个人参与挑战的原因，而没有采访个人或个人的亲近者，这是由于缺乏证据而导致的潜在错误信息的另一个方面。目前的研究的一个贡献是合成安全的消息传递准则，可用于未来的研究。这项研究有助于了解与《生物武器公约》有关的自杀和自我伤害的新闻报道做法以及类似的在线挑战。我们讨论了新闻媒体对《生物武器公约》的耸人听闻的报道如何无意中传播自杀传染效应，使青年人的自残行为正常化。然后，我们研究了实践和政策的影响，例如使用自动化方法来帮助记者遵守安全的消息传递准则。
The Blue Whale Challenge (BWC) is an online viral "game" that allegedly encourages youth and young adults towards self-harming behaviors that could eventually lead to suicide. The BWC can be situated within a larger phenomenon of viral online self-harm challenges, which may be propagated through both social media and news sources. Research has established that suicide is a global public health issue that is known to be influenced by media reporting. Violation of safe messaging guidelines has been shown to increase imitative suicides, particularly in youth and young adults. Given the confirmed effects of news media reporting, we analyzed 150 digital newspaper articles reporting on the BWC to assess whether they adhered to suicide prevention safe messaging guidelines. Overall, 81% of the articles violated at least one contagion-related guideline, most commonly normalizing suicide, discussing means of suicide, and sensationalizing. Even though the majority (91%) of the articles adhered to at least one health-promotion guideline, such as emphasizing prevention, the articles did not follow these guidelines on a deep and comprehensive level. Through thematic analysis, we also found evidence of potential misinformation in reporting, where the articles unequivocally attributed many suicides to the BWC with little or no evidence. Additionally, articles often stated an individual's reason for participating in the challenge without interviewing the individual or those close to the individual, another aspect of potential misinformation due to lack of evidence. A contribution of the current study is the synthesis of safe messaging guidelines that can be used in future research. This study contributes to the understanding of news reporting practices regarding suicide and self-harm in regard to the BWC and similar online challenges. We discuss how sensationalized news media reports on the BWC could unintentionally propagate suicide contagion effects that normalize self-harming behaviors among youth. We then examine implications for practice and policy, such using automated approaches to aid reporters in adhering to safe messaging guidelines.