View point by Saki Kambe
In mid-October, I attended a journalism conference in Portland, and one of the workshop was on suicide reporting. This got me thinking what our role as journalists should look like.
The first thing I learned in the session that shocked me wasn’t necessarily distinct to journalism. It was the usage of the word “commit” when addressing the issue of suicide. The host of the workshop had made clear that “commit,” used as in “commit suicide” has to go. Commit is a word that is used for a crime, and not for the act of someone taking their own life.
Suicide reporting is what us, The Buccaneer, as a staff, have been grappling with this quarter. Our news editor Sarah Baker had run stories on suicide for the past two issues, and this is something we believed that we needed to shed a light on.
The suicide rate in Clallam County is a lot higher than the national average, yet this undeniable public health issue lacks public attention and sustained outcry that is in fact desperately needed.
This is something my staff and I believed to be true; hence, we committed to address the isue all quarter-long.
It is very easy to say that a journalists’ role is to inform people, but informing people, in suicide reporting particularly, is what we would get tested on. We are extremely glad we tackled the issue.