The Werther and Papageno Effect

or: Let's talk about it – but how?

Lecture and talk with Thomas Niederkrotenthaler, Medical University of Vienna

For a long time, suicide research had an exclusive focus on the harmful effects of suicide coverage, the Werther effect. This is now well documented, especially for reporting on celebrity suicides, and the World Health Organization as well as national suicide prevention programs such as the one in Germany recommend the dissemination of media recommendations on suicide reporting in cooperation with media professionals in order to avoid such effects. For several years, there has also been research examining the complementary suicide prevention potential of media coverage. This shows that media narratives that focus on crisis management and constructive ways of dealing with suicidal behavior can help to prevent suicides, the Papageno effect. In particular, personal life stories of those affected seem to have a positive effect, which is essential for the question of destigmatization and for the media discussion of the topic of suicide. In this presentation, key research findings on the topic of media and suicide will be presented.

Thomas Niederkrotenthaler is an associate professor and head of the unit Suicide Research & Mental Health Promotion at the Medical University of Vienna, Austria. He is a suicidologist and mental health researcher with a particular focus on epidemiological research and media effects on suicide. His team has coined the Papageno effect which describes suicide-protective potentials of media reporting.