[eddiegroves]

I'm not sure about how it is in USA but a lot of countries have strict rules around the media reporting suicides, so it is deliberate that the topic is under reported.

Naturally a lot of people disagree with this and there's constantly heated debate on the future of the media's role.

[neutronicus]

They do tend to cluster, and more so when they're in the public eye.

[robryan]

Yeah, they are completely avoided in Australia, only time you really hear about one in the media is if it was a public figure. I don't really think this is the right thing to do, it masks that there is any problem so it doesn't get the attention it needs.

[socialmediaking]

The more you talk about suicide, the more people commit it. It's a terrible conundrum in spreading awareness of how many people actually commit suicide. If there is a high-profile case of suicide reported, there will usually be an uptick in suicide and single car, single-passenger car crashes by people in similar demographics. There is an entire section in Cialdini's book Influence, on the social proof of suicide, and I just recently heard this Freakonomics podcast on the subject http://www.freakonomics.com/2011/08/31/new-freakonomics-radi...

[Joakal]

It's against broadcasting rules to publish anything relating to suicide. Especially euthanasia.

I gather that exceptions are made for exceptional news.

[caf]

The usual codewords are "Police say there were no suspicious circumstances".

[pgeorgi]

Background to the debate (and the origin of the strict rules in the first place): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copycat_suicide

[lgv]

I worked for a newspaper in Texas, and the editors told us not to cover suicides.