Voices For Suicide Prevention

Nationwide Children's Hospital researchers lead Ohio and the country on media suicide reporting guidelines

Scott Light

When was the last time you clicked on a story knowing full well it was pure clickbait but you wanted a quick smile during your day and that story did its job!  Hey, we all do it.  From a changing mainstream media landscape to algorithmic calculations for your social media feeds, companies know two things: our time is valuable and our attention spans are short.  However,  when it comes to reporting on something as tragic and often as jarring as suicide, a quick social media post can actually cause more harm than good.   Fortunately, a team of researchers at Nationwide Children's Hospital received a grant to study this, to talk to journalists, see the demands on their day and set about helping them fully understand suicide and thus, better educate the masses when reporting on it.    NCH's Dr. John Ackerman led this study and leads the hospital's Center for Suicide Prevention and Research.   He talked with former 28-year journalist Scott Light who hosts the OSPF podcast.    Their conversation was part of a recent OSPF webinar.