katu.comBreaking the Silence (Oregon)
Week-long (7-14 April 2019) collaboration of more than 30 Oregon newsrooms, convened with the suicide prevention nonprofit Lines for Life, to publish coordinated suicide coverage following reporting guidelines, with stories of hope and prevention resources.
- Years
- 2019
- Country
- United States
- Topic
- Suicide prevention
- Asks people to
- Seek helpTalk to someone
- Strategy
- Service linkTestimonial
- Channel
- PrintRadioSocial (organic)TV
- Audience
- General public
Evidence
Quasi-experimentalMixed
Gould et al. (2024), Bayesian structural time series vs 8 comparison states: Lifeline calls from Oregon area codes rose in the 30 days after launch (2,488 observed vs 2,283 expected, p=0.03); no change in suicide mortality or suicide-related Google searches; no sign of contagion. Niederkrotenthaler et al. (2024): 104 campaign-month items were mostly consistent with guidelines and scored better than other suicide coverage, but stories of coping were scarce; small Twitter footprint. Safe messaging: explicitly guideline-based; under-used Papageno stories.
Sponsor (who paid)
- Lines for Life NGO, convener
- Oregon news organisations (The Oregonian, Oregon Public Broadcasting and others) Industry, publishers
Credits (who made it)
Not recorded yet.
Related campaigns
Sources
- Gould MS et al. "Breaking the silence" suicide prevention media campaign in Oregon: evaluation of impact on help-seeking and suicide mortality. Suicide Life Threat Behav 2024;54(2):361-369 evaluation · 2024 · DOI 10.1111/sltb.13047 · PMID 38265194
- Niederkrotenthaler T et al. "Breaking the Silence" suicide prevention media campaign in Oregon, April 7-14, 2019. Crisis 2024;45(5):330-338 evaluation · 2024 · DOI 10.1027/0227-5910/a000955 · PMID 38495020
- Oregon newsrooms team up to 'break silence' around suicide (KATU) news · 2019
Record cases/breaking-the-silence-oregon.json, updated 2026-10-22· Link to this campaign