Mental health professionals are concerned with how suicide is portrayed in media because suicide is contagious. If vulnerable groups, such as teenagers, are exposed to depictions of suicide, there can be an increase in suicidal behavior, known as “suicide contagion.” The risk for suicide contagion is increased if the media reports “oversimplified explanations such as recent negative life events or acute stressors.” 13RW somewhat did this by naming people as her “reasons.” While mental illness is touched on in the show, it is never directly mentioned that the main character may have been mentally ill–being left for the audience to infer. Media reports should also not use detailed descriptions of suicide as that may lead to replication. As stated, 13RW showed her suicide on camera. Lastly, media reports should not glorify the victim and suggest the suicide was effective in achieving attention. 13RW romanticized the idea of suicide, showing the main character gaining publicity and love messages after her death.
Because of the sensitive topics this show deals with and its blatant disregard to professionals’ recommendations, many researchers looked into 13RW’s correlation with real-life suicides around the time of its release. A study by JAMA Psychiatry found that suicide rates rose 13.3% among teenagers between April and June 2017, after 13RW was released. They calculated that 94 more teenagers died than expected during the time interval. They also found that suicide rates increased proportionally more for girls, who most likely identified with the main character, than for boys. However, there is no proof that the teenagers who died watched 13RW, so they could not conclude 13RW caused teen deaths. Nonetheless, there was a correlation between its release an increase in death which they described as “concerning.”
On the positive side, a study commissioned by Netflix found that teens learned about risk the factors for suicide and talked about reaching out for help. Netflix also added warnings to show for season 2 including suicide helplines. Many mental health researchers believe shows can contribute to suicide prevention. As the head of the Suicide Research & Mental Health Promotion unit at the Medical University of Vienna explains, “The question here really is how this is done.”
I do agree that 13RW went the wrong way in depicting teen suicide but also brought more awareness to the issue. I too was shocked at the fact that Netflix included the scene of her committing suicide (I'm pretty sure they removed it due to the backlash). I haven't watched season 3 but I hope they touch more on mental health as a contributor and a huge part of society.
ReplyDeleteI feel like if anything teenagers who are at a low state of mind are more enabled by watching this show. In the show after the main character passes away everyone seems to care about her so much more now that she is gone, and I feel like there are a lot of teens who want attention and probably feel like if they aren't cared about. Thus prompting them to take their lives in order to have more people care about them.
ReplyDeleteI think this post was really informative on the importance of the media being aware of how they portray sensitive topics like suicide. I also thought the information on suicide contagion was interesting as I hadn't really heard of the phenomenon before.
ReplyDeleteThis show was very intense in the way they portrayed the suicides, like you said. I do see how this show could increase the number of suicides. When Hannah committed suicide, she got a lot of attention from her friends, family, and the public. This could cause other girls or boys to commit suicide to try and get the same kind of attention. Tv shows and movies like this one, have to be very careful on how they portray this kind of information. It is a difficult task to do, but like you said if showed properly it can inform people about the difficulties that teenagers go through.
ReplyDeleteI see how the show could be connected with increased suicides. I think for this to be raised actual causation should be proved. Can't they see the watch history of suicides and see if they watched the show? At the same time we would not be able to tell how many suicides the show prevented by raising awareness.
ReplyDeleteI think that when this show aired, it did help a lot of teens who were dealing with these issues and more awareness to the issue became better known. Though I also agree that because of the amount of publicity this show had, the amount of teen suicides rose and made it seem almost normal for these occurrences to happen.
ReplyDeleteI think this show has dramatized some teen experiences in high school but some kids are influenced by tv shows to do exactly what they see the actors do because they feel like if they did it, they can do it too and it's okay because they just saw it on tv.
ReplyDelete13RW is very popular on Netflix, meaning that many teenagers have watched it. Showing Hannah’s suicide is basically a step by step tutorial that shows it’s viewers how to kill themselves. Hannah’s suicide was dramatized and it was very clear that it gave her a lot of attention. If people are feeling depressed or like they aren’t getting the attention they deserve, then watching this show potentially puts the idea of suicide being a solution and a way to get attention. By having her “reasons” be people at her school, it shows that going through relationship troubles or friend troubles is enough reason to commit suicide, but many of the hardships Hannah faced are things almost every teenager has to go through.
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