HamburgerBoy
Active Member
- Sep 16, 2007
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It's obviously not a particularly high-resolution data set. E.g. I'd bet that of the ~12% of suicide reported on in the media, the vast majority is of celebrities and subsequent suicide awareness. Off the top of my head, I can think of one non-celebrity suicide I saw in random news, and it was of a recent Harvard graduate ("She had so much to live for her life was just beginning how could this happen yadda yadda"), so not exactly a prole either. There's also the fact that heart disease and cancer largely effect those that should expect it (smokers, fatties, old people, etc); if anything cancer is probably over-discussed in the media.
EDIT: Actually I take back the suicide anecdote, now that I remember, I overheard a conversation at my school's lab where a student was talking about how her old friend who graduated Harvard committed suicide, so I still had to actually find the story. Though I might be a biased observer in that I largely just go after the front page stuff; if they're counting obits and minor columns then I could imagine suicides being more discussed.
EDIT: Actually I take back the suicide anecdote, now that I remember, I overheard a conversation at my school's lab where a student was talking about how her old friend who graduated Harvard committed suicide, so I still had to actually find the story. Though I might be a biased observer in that I largely just go after the front page stuff; if they're counting obits and minor columns then I could imagine suicides being more discussed.
