Should Journalists Report On Suicides?

Last week, a 19-year-old University of Pennsylvania freshman on the track team commit suicide in Center City. Her death has become news around the world, as the understanding is that her actions were caused by the stress of the academic setting.

The reality is that no one knows with any certainty why she jumped off a parking garage.

A Philly Mag writer questioned why this situation has become such a large story, when the media generally shun suicides as personal situations that are therefore not deemed relevant to the public at large.

Last fall, when a Temple student threatened to commit suicide and police evacuated a city block near campus, news outlets covered the story but never released the distressed student's name. Once the block was reopened to the residents, the story pretty much disappeared from the news.

Do the circumstances of the more recent situation deem it to be newsworthy? It's an Ivy League school and she was an attractive young woman. Her actions were in a very public place, and there have been other suicides at Penn over the past few years.

Should journalists change their longstanding policy of not covering suicides and report on them when needed? Or should we allow these families to deal with the situation in private?