From coverage of Cornell University’s response to six students’ deaths by suicide to reports of entertainer Marie Osmond’s teenage son’s death by suicide, recently reporters are writing and talking a lot about suicide.

While it’s great that news coverage is driving public dialogue about this often taboo topic, the news coverage does not utilize linguistically [...]]]>

From coverage of Cornell University’s response to six students’ deaths by suicide to reports of entertainer Marie Osmond’s teenage son’s death by suicide, recently reporters are writing and talking a lot about suicide.

While it’s great that news coverage is driving public dialogue about this often taboo topic, the news coverage does not utilize linguistically competent language regarding suicide.  As a result, it could hinder groups trying to support and help those impacted by these deaths.

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In response to this suicide news story trend, Alicia Sparks – on her Celebrity Psychings blog – discussed how media can responsibly report on suicide. For example, instead of saying someone “committed suicide,” mental health consumers and leaders prefer to say someone “died by suicide” instead. The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, American Association of Suicidology and Annenberg Public Policy Center provide tips to reporters on how to report on suicide without inadvertently encouraging  copycat actions.  Their research shows that the way suicide deaths are reported can impact whether suicide contagions occur or not. Word and phrase selection can be very influential. Overly dramatic headlines like “Do Cornell’s Gorges Make Kids Commit Suicide?” or “Does 6 deaths in 6 months make Cornell ‘suicide school’?” could hinder Cornell’s suicide prevention efforts.

Suicide is not the only mental health challenge or health-related issue to fall victim to the media’s inflammatory or linguistically incompetent phrasing. It’s not uncommon for reporters to say that someone is “schizophrenic” instead of “has schizophrenia.” Similar to how we speak about cancer, the medical illness, disorder or condition should not be an adjective describing people, but should be phrased as “has cancer,” instead of “is cancerous.”

While the media has been reporting about AIDS/HIV for more than 25 years, they still refer to people living with AIDS/HIV as “is HIV-positive” or “has AIDS,” not acknowledging how medical advances allow people to “live” with the disease as opposed to it being a death sentence.

As health communicators, we must make sure that our media materials use linguistic and culturally competent words and phrases to help the media start stories on the right foot. Competency in our communication can’t be limited to just being “politically correct.”  Instead, we must acknowledge the power (and influence) word selection has in impacting behavior change and engaging (and persuading) key audiences.

Last year, I drafted a media advisory referencing suicide and witnessed the power of words. Familiar with how suicide is discussed within the mental health community, I chose to use “died by suicide” in the media advisory. When the advisory was reviewed by one of the people highlighted in it, I received this email in response:

Bravo! Appreciate the use of “died by suicide” rather than committed suicide as a person who is surviving a sister’s death by suicide in 1995 and as a suicide attempt survivor. It’s language that brings dignity to families, friends and those of us who have struggled to survive and recover.

British politician Pearl Strachan Hurd once said, “Handle them carefully, for words have more power than atom bombs.”  We want our words as communicators — and those of the media — to not only inform and persuade, but also offer dignity and respect to sensitive, intimate stories and lives we report in our materials and news outlets.

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Understanding how best to communicate with and support refugee communities living in the United States can be a daunting challenge. In 2008, more than 60,000 refugees immigrated to the United States from all around the world. For refugee families, their arrival in America is not the end of their [...]]]>

http://www.flickr.com/photos/digitaldemocracy/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Understanding how best to communicate with and support refugee communities living in the United States can be a daunting challenge. In 2008, more than 60,000 refugees immigrated to the United States from all around the world. For refugee families, their arrival in America is not the end of their journey, but a beginning filled with new opportunities and many transition challenges.

Recently, I discovered a new research resource that can help communicators become more culturally and linguistically competent when reaching out to and supporting refugee communities.  The Cultural Orientation Resource Center (COR Center) develops informational materials for refugees, service providers, and anyone interested in learning more about refugee communities in the United States.

Compiled by resettlement service providers working within these communities, the COR Center “backgrounders” provide  historical and cultural characteristics about refugee groups which can help communicators  determine what strategies, tactics, and messages would be best to reach their target audience. For an example, read the recent backgrounder on Iraqi refugees living in the United States that were displaced by the Iraq war and its aftermath.

What’s more, the Center has highlighted their available resources on Haiti, including a background on Haitian history and culture, as well as an English-Haitian Creole phrasebook.  They are designed “primarily for service providers and others assisting refugees in their new communities in the United States,” and both can be viewed online or downloaded for free.

Research is the foundation of effective communication.  Thanks to this free database, we can help refugees seeking asylum in America adjust to their new country by using these documents to deepen our understanding of their past and present, but also learn to speak the same language.

Photo Credit: U.S. Census Bureau, Public Information Office

The Washington Post reports that 20 percent of people may not participate in the 2010 census, even though they are legally obligated to do so. According to a new poll from the Pew Research Center, many respondents said they are too busy or uninterested to fill [...]]]>

Photo Credit: U.S. Census Bureau, Public Information Office

The Washington Post reports that 20 percent of people may not participate in the 2010 census, even though they are legally obligated to do so. According to a new poll from the Pew Research Center, many respondents said they are too busy or uninterested to fill out the 10 question form, while many others simply distrust the government or worry about privacy.

In response to concerns from national civil rights groups, the Census Bureau has been touting a $133 million advertising campaign, which includes television spots in 28 different languages. The Bureau estimates it will reach the average person 42 times with slogans such as the “2010 census – it’s in our hands.”

Key to the Bureau’s success will not only be its ability to offer ads in-language, but also to provide messages that respond to cultural concerns and barriers to filling out the form. The Census Bureau reports that the emphasis in the message varies with the audience, with objects, backgrounds, and other props changing in some TV ads to reach different groups.

The question is, will that be enough? With the Census launching in March, two months of positive, culturally considerate messaging might not be adequate to mitigate years, even decades, of misinformation and distrust.

Census officials say that each percentage point of nonresponse to the initial survey costs $80-90 million to hire people to knock on doors. In preparing for the 2020 census, it might be wise to consider investing that money over the next decade in long-term, culturally competent messaging that increases dialogue and understanding about the need for and benefits of this critical decennial count.