A VERY poor example of suicide in the news

As I've been looking through various examples of suicide coverage in the news, I've seen a fair share of both great examples and horrible ones. But this article by Daily News may take the cake for the worst coverage I have ever seen.

The article wastes no time in painting a picture of the incident. The headline reads, "Woman, 21, hands herself from Brooklyn fire escape in suicide." Try reading that while eating breakfast.

I had a difficult time moving past this headline. Why on earth would someone think that would be an appropriate way to introduce the story? Headlines are a huge determinant of whether or not people will click to read more, and not only is this incredibly graphic, it doesn't accurately tell the story of the loss of life.

The article included quotes from neighbors who discovered the victim. I could not believe the journalist used this information as a way to tell the story. What good does it do to describe the image of a lifeless body hanging outside someone's window? Or that she looked like a mannequin? Or what her neck looked like? As one of the sources in the article said, "I didn't need to see that." I'm sure readers were thinking something similar, something along the lines of, "I didn't need to read that."

I was also in absolute shock that they decided to include a photo of the medical examiners taking the body away from the scene of the death. The first thing I learned about when covering suicide was to be incredibly sensitive about the visuals you include. There is no benefit in including pictures of where the death occurred, how it occurred, etc. If anything, its respectable to include a photo of the victim from school, work, family events and the like as to represent them in the most accurate and sensitive manner.

The article continues on with a handful of quotes from neighbors like the one mentioned previously, and included statements like "She was a good person," or "Everything seemed perfectly fine." In most cases, those who die by suicide are suffering from some sort of mental illness, so to say that everything seemed perfectly fine is blatantly ignorant of the possible emotional devastation that the victim was going through. I am in complete shock that someone published this article, and even more so that it hasn't been pulled off the web. I will forever use this piece as an example of how not to cover suicide in the media.