Jelena Dokic's suicide-related social media post and the worldwide media's portrayal of a story of survival: a natural experiment

Abstract

Objective: Coverage and public communication about suicide represent a major public health concern given the potential for identification and imitation. Yet when celebrities survive a suicidal crisis, it presents an opportunity to model adaptive coping. Tennis star Jelena Dokic's June 2022 Instagram post recounting her experience overcoming suicidal thoughts represents a unique natural experiment to characterize media coverage of a celebrity survival event. Methods: We searched Google News and the entire University of Toronto library catalogue for articles about Dokic's post. We divided articles according to world region of publication: (a) Australia & New Zealand, (b) United States & Canada, and (c) United Kingdom & Ireland. We coded articles for content and used Chi-squared analyses to identify differences including adherence to responsible media reporting guidelines. Results: We identified 73 articles of which 71 were available for coding. Almost all articles positioned Dokic's story as one of survival and conveyed alternatives to suicide (94%). However, 56 (79%) highlighted a suicide method that Dokic mentioned in her post and 18 (25%) inaccurately described Dokic as disclosing that she had attempted suicide when her post only conveyed suicidal thoughts. In general, adherence to responsible reporting guidelines appeared stronger in articles published in Australia & New Zealand. Conclusions: We found that the international media extensively covered Dokic's story of survival including substantial helpful information but also some misinformation and content that violates responsible reporting guidelines. Greater adherence by media in Australia & New Zealand may be due to more robust implementation of responsible media guidelines in the region.