Celebrity suicide: Glamorization in the Media?

This article shared the news of the death of Sawyer Sweeten, the child star who was most famous for his role on Everybody Loves Raymond. This article, to me, serves as a poor example of how to cover suicide in the news, particularly the death of a celebrity. 

For one, let’s start with the headline – it comes right out and tells you that this person took their life, and used “commit suicide” as the terminology. Based on what I've read on how to cover suicide, it's best to report that "So and so died, age X" because the story is about the loss of life. Including suicide in the headline is a bit insensitive and unnecessary, as is using "commit" to describe that this person took their life because it is often associated with the idea that someone was involved in a crime.

I also didn’t enjoy how right away, the author included a statement about the tragedy of the event. Based on my research of the best tactics to use when covering suicide, it’s best to not include statements about this incident being a tragedy. It’s very understandably obvious that this event was tragic; there’s no need to throw it in people’s faces. This was someone's child, friend, colleague (even at such a young age) and their presence in world of celebrities should not take away from the fact that they were a person. Of course, if the family wants to comment, they have the freedom to do so. But what good does it do to reiterate the pain of the loss? I think they could have included the section of the quote about the family requesting privacy and respect during this time, but including the part about it being a tragic loss is not benefiting or contributing anything more to the story than what is already very much apparent. 

Additionally, I’m not sure how I feel about the way they wrapped up the article. It concluded by stating that Sawyer did not seem to have taken on any other acting opportunities after the show was done, which I thought was incredibly insensitive overall. Why did that piece of information matter? What did that contribute to the story? If you were to decide to include it, though, why would that be the finishing thought? This is still a person. Their fame was not the only thing that defined them. There is more to the story, to this person, and the loss of their life than their claim to fame and what came after. I will constantly refer back to this article as a prime example of how not to cover celebrity death by suicide in the media.