Thursday, January 21, 2010

Suicide: A to Z, courtesy of Gulf News



Apparently 113 people committed suicide in the UAE last year; that is very sad, everyone can agree. Odder, though, was the graphic the newspaper published this week alongside the story announcing the statistic. Complete with not one but TWO nooses (one having already claimed a victim, apparently), descriptions of how people kill themselves these days, why, and what ways they notify those they leave behind (the box points out, helpfully, that people are leaving audio and video notes; others just write them - you can see an example down near the bottom right).

Sure, those of us in the newspaper business are always encouraged to come up with elements to help people better understand our stories. I'm just not sure this kind of graphic is the best way to do that, considering.

1 comment:

A 2 Z said...

Marriage leads to suicide? I'm reading between the lines here that women are either the culprit or the victim depending on the circumstances. Strange and sad.

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