Controversial or emotional stories can be difficult to report. If you decide to write about teen suicide, here's help from Poynter's Al Tompkins. And here's a nicely done story about a student's death.
Poynter's Al Tompkins writes in
Al's Morning Meeting:
Journalists usually avoid suicide stories. It is especially difficult
when the death involves a child or teenager. But about 4,500 kids took
their own life in 2004,
according to an AP story, and more attempted it.
The teen in KARE-11's story died from hanging.
Earlier this year I told you
about something called "the choking game" in which kids unintentionally
kill themselves. A national study says coroners need to be educated
about the practice so they don't mistakenly label deaths as suicide
when they are really accidental.
- In
2004, suicide was the third-leading cause of death in the United States
among youths and young adults 10 to 24 years old, accounting for 4,599
deaths.
- For more than a decade (1990-2003) the suicide rate among people 10 to 24 years old dropped -- down a stunning 28.5 percent.
- But from 2003 to 2004, the rate increased by 8 percent. (2004 is the most recent year available.)
- From 2003 to 2004, suicide rates shot up for females between the ages of 10 and 14 and females aged 15 to 19, reversing an earlier trend.
- The
latest data also shows a marked increase in teen deaths by hanging or
suffocation (the same method used in the KARE-TV story).
- Especially
noteworthy is that girls have begun hanging themselves in numbers never
seen before. In 1990, firearms were the most common suicide method
among females between the ages of 10 and 24 -- more than half in each
five-year age group. However, from 1990 to 2004, suicide by hanging or
suffocation became the most common method in all three age groups:
- 71.4 percent of suicides of 10- to 14-year-olds.
- 49 percent of 15- to 19-year-olds.
- 34.2 percent of 20- to 24-year olds.
