Beyond the Werther effect: The role of mass media in the context of depression and suicidality

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Carsten Reinemann
• Subject Area: Communication Sciences ; Public Health, Healthcare Research, Social and Occupational Medicine
• Term: from 2012 to 2016
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 227979919

Since the seminal work of Phillips (1974) investigations on the connection between mass media and suicide have almost completely been labeled as Werther effect studies. This fact has led to several theoretical and methodic shortcomings that hamper a comprehensive conceptualization of the connections between suicide and the media: 1) Coverage on factual suicides is regarded to be an activator of suicidal behaviors; other forms and genres of media content are mostly not taken into consideration. 2) As an outcome the research focus lays especially on factual suicides, while preceding forms of suicidality (e.g. depressions and suicidal thoughts) have been neglected so far. 3) Specific activators of suicidality, like depression, are not integrated in the Werther context. 4) Well-known phenomena in the context of media reception (e.g. third-person perceptions or the perceived media agenda) are not included in current research on the topic. 5) Research on the Werther effect is almost completely based on aggregate data on factual suicides (e.g. suicide rates) which entails methodological concerns that are not convincing against the theoretical background of Werther research.To disentangle these shortcomings of current Werther effect research we plan to conduct a cross-sectional representative telephone survey in Germany that focuses on both of the most central components of research on the Werther effect: Media (use and perception) and suicidality (suicidal thoughts, plans and attempts) as well as their most important predispositions while controlling for socio-structural third variables. To model the theoretical implications from the literature in our data we use structural equation modeling (SEM). By doing so, we are also able to test these models for direct and indirect, global and local effects.The aim of the research project is to describe the directions between media content and its use, subjectively ascribed everyday relevance of certain mass media content and its influences on individual suicidality of people with different predispositions. Therefore, the project extends the scope of current research on the associations between suicidality and mass media. By doing so, existing knowledge in this (worldwide) field of research will be extremely enriched through this research project.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants