Reporting on Suicide in the Egyptian Press: Did the Arab Spring Make a Difference?

Abstract

This study uses content analysis to explore how suicides were reported in four Egyptian dailies before and after the Arab Spring. It also investigates how the Arab Spring might have changed attitudes towards suicide itself and the adherence to ethical guidelines in reporting on it. An analysis of 248 stories published between 2010 and 2012 reveals that the level of adherence to ethical guidelines remained almost the same before and after the Arab Spring. Blaming the victims of suicide was only observed before the Arab Spring. Although suicide was one of the techniques which triggered the Arab Spring, the study did not detect an increase in sensationalist coverage of suicide after the Arab Spring began. The results of the present study reinforce the call for the development of a theory of global media ethics theory.