SUICIDE REPORTING: A COMPARISON OF LOCAL AND NATIONAL NEWSPAPERS’ NEWS FRAMING

Abstract

Suicide is a popular cause of death in the contemporary era. Every suicide is a traumatic event that has a long-term impact on those left behind, impacting families, and even countries. The study relied on content analysis. The study was carried out using the Framing theory to learn about suicide news framing in local and national publications. Data was collected from two newspapers, Daily Chand and Daily Express, between April 1st and September 30th, 2020. The study found that Daily Express framed 31 stories and only 1 story was framed by Daily Chand through episodic framing. It has found that depression was the primary cause of suicide. The results demonstrate that the National newspaper gives mostly coverage to suicide on city or national/international page while local newspaper give space to suicide on the back page of the newspaper. In most of the cases poison were used by the victim as a tool to end their life. The overall result shows that suicide ratio is higher among the young generation.