Writing about suicide in a responsible way: training course for media professionals and students

Overview

Suicide is a serious global public health problem that demands our attention. Appropriate dissemination of information about suicide and awareness-raising are essential elements to successfully prevent suicide. The information in this document was developed as an online course to support the training of media professionals and students to cover news about suicide in a safe and responsible manner. The training briefly summarizes current evidence regarding the impact of media reporting of suicide, with case studies and exercises, and provides information for media professionals about how to report on suicide responsibly. It is designed to be an asynchronous online course in the Estonian context and is presented here in the form of a summary of the content of the slides available via the online platform, with accompanying notes and references.