Adherence to suicide reporting guidelines by news shared on a social networking platform

Rates of suicide in the United States have increased over recent decades. One modifiable risk factor for suicide is exposure to sensationalized media content about suicide. Health authorities have published guidelines for news media reporting on suicide; however, uptake of recommendations remains limited. We conducted a study to analyze adherence to the guidelines on news shared on Facebook and assessed how adherence affects reader engagement. Certain harmful elements were widely prevalent in news media while protective elements were limited; however, contrary to popular perception, articles which more closely adhered to safe-reporting practices were shared more often. Variability in scores exists across nations and publisher types with implications for journalists, public health organizations, social media companies, researchers, and lay readers.