Recommendations include not broadcasting the details of the suicide method, being discreet and sensitive about broadcast images and demonstrating extreme care in reporting unusual suicide techniques. Think of some famous news images, like the Rodney King beating, JonBenet dancing or Bill and Monica hugging. We have all seen these hundreds of times. At Columbine, over and over, we saw the same photos of the killers, a bloody student exiting from a window, groups of children running from the school and the shocked victims. News departments can use repetition to sell a story just like advertisers use it to sell a product.
Repetition gives notoriety to perpetrators and motivates others to imitate violent acts.
Stations may rationalize their use of repetition on the grounds that many viewers tune in for only a few minutes, but that avoids the issue of negative side-effects. Turn the TV and radio off as appropriate. Bizarre crimes, celebrity, money, murder, sex, mystery and videotape surrounding a news story make for good theater and increased potential for media frenzies. These tabloid attributes are entirely different from the elements of good journalism - fairness, balance, accuracy and substance. Media frenzies, like those that surrounded the O.J., JonBenet, Monica and Columbine stories, crowd other stories out of the news, resulting in an unbalanced diet of information for citizens.