Taz: Mr. Shvab, you recently wrote in the new pamphlet of the national suicide prevention program that suicide in the media should end. Why do the media evade this?
Frank Shvab: This negative attitude has existed for decades. It began at that time with Johann Wolfgang from Goethe’s fictional novel, The Suffering of the Young Werther. At that time, it was assumed that individual young people, similar to the main character of the novel, committed suicide. How dramatic effect was actually contradictory. However, with medial reporting, there are definitely noticeable cases that clearly led to imitation. Therefore, media experts are concerned that their contribution can contribute to further death.
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If you have thoughts about suicide, talk to someone about it. You can contact telephone consulting by watch (08 00/1 11 01 or 08 00/1 11 02 22) or www. Phones. There is also the opportunity to talk with pastors.
TAZ: What cases do you mean?
Schwab: Football player Robert Enke was such a case or actor Robin Williams. The issuance of a person plays a role. This is especially inappropriate when famous people also report in a small part – with specific descriptions of actions that are romanticized. Imitation can be recognized by the fact that the method of suicide of celebrities is also copied. Or the place where the person sued. Calling obvious places, hot spots can arise when people often take their lives – like a bridge of the golden gate to the dignity of Francisco. To prevent suicide, the Americans did this, so today it is much more difficult to jump from the bridge.
In an interview:
Frank Shvab
Born in 1963, is a professor of media psychology at the University of Würzburg. He is also a member of the German Society of Publishing and Communication.
Taz: Former Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach once proposed in tension networks under bridges as suicide prevention. So is this actually effective practice?
Schwab: Such prevention can save life at a decisive moment. Some people are in an acute crisis, suffer from suicidal thoughts, and then they will not immediately find help. You can decide to take your life – but you can prevent suicide with a tense network. You are not just running to the next bridge. There is a valuable time for rethinking and re -assessment, this can save life. It was like the use of suicide medicines, here the packaging sizes were reduced, and it was shown that this measure has an effect. How do you believe, how are most people in the United States committed suicide?
TAZ: I accept with firearms?
Schwab: Exactly. The German law of firearms protects us from this. About 7.5 percent of all suicides in this country are marked with weapons, and this is still a preferred suicide method among hunters or sports shooters. In Germany, 41 percent of those who suicide.
TAZ: Let’s get back to the media. How can journalism help prevent suicide?
Schwab: We should not prohibit the topic. I don’t understand me incorrectly – with such confidential content, journalism should correspond to the press code, so this should not be reported about the methodology or on the spot. But since suicides are often avoided as a topic, there are many myths, which, in turn, complicates prevention.
TAZ: What is good -known myths?
Schwab: It is often assumed that someone ultimately does not take life when they talked about it in advance. This is nonsense. Most people who commit suicide declare it in advance. Many also believe that from the dark months there are many suicides. In fact, spring is the most and very few in winter. There is also a gradient of the East-West: in the East there are higher suicide rates, even today. Very few know that the largest risk group consists of men who are more than 60 and compete with retirement age. Thus, there is a lot of which was investigated in suicide, but too little of this is transmitted to the public, so many preventive measures cannot work well. Since the need is not recognized, the funds of the financial state are often absent, and the victims depend on the measures of voluntary assistance. Sometimes even doctors believe in myths.
TAZ: How can experts from the media cope with the call?
Schwab: Journalism should not be afraid to report suicide, but should adhere to the ethics of the press and recommendations for reporting. Terms such as suicide or suicide should be avoided. Care not only belongs to journalism: the general public is afraid to talk about suicide, because they are worried about doing something wrong or even punish. Also because they do not know the legal situation. Legislators do not expect diagnostic or clairvoyant skills from LayPersons. If someone gives a hint that can be interpreted in any case, you are not required to be held accountable. The same applies to suicidal fantasies that a person carries with him. Supported assistance is used only when a person clearly announces that he will end life and that it is not transferred to the police. By the way, this also applies to therapists.
TAZ: Are there states that can be a role model for Germany in terms of reporting?
Schwab: Yes, Austria has done a lot here. On the one hand, they have a live research program with free material for students, the concept of the hot line of national crisis intervention, training programs for journalists and a prize in the papagena (a reward for suicide prevention, note. On the other hand, the media code will be supported by training and monitoring, which will be presented here. Compared to the German press, which is raised that it is raised that it is raised that it is raised that it is raised that It was required that the requirements for the invented and the protocol.
TAZ: How can German journalism get there?
Schwab: Sensitivity to suicide should take place in the framework of the training of journalists. Young journalists should find out something about value effects. Or also about the effect of papageno, which states that information from people with their own experience of suicide can reduce suicide. They must find out what you should pay special attention to, and what will be a suitable report.
TAZ: And how can politics intervene?
Schwab: There is suicidal work in Kassel. The university issues a national suicide prevention program, which has compiled information for the media specialists and gives recommendations on reporting. The work is financed at the expense of project funds. If the project’s money has disappeared, the work in the media also disappeared. It would be nice if such objects were forever funded so that journalists could turn there at any time and be affordable for experts. And then there are new media, for example, where people meet at suicide. Something like this needs to be controlled. In the United States, the woman sued the supplier of bots in the chat, because her son, in the visible one, fell in love with the figure of a chat bot, and then committed suicide.
TAZ: What exactly happened?
Schwab: Parents were shocked because they had no idea. But the son was more and more. Instead of telling the boy that he should receive professional help, the bout chat romanted the boy’s thoughts about suicide. In the past, search engines, such as Google, did not admit when people wanted suicide, today the number of telephone consultations occurs immediately when I introduce “suicide” as a search term. Of course, the German government has no influence on this, because the multinational service provider, and each state has a different legal situation. But there are installed screws where politics can turn.
