ABSTRACT
Truth about suicide takes on a different meaning in newsprint media. Writing on intrusion into grief in journalism long before any guidelines were in place in Australia, Richards observed that, while most newsrooms agree not to report ‘“average” suicides, exceptions are invariably made when the person involved is a prominent “name” or when the individual has employed more spectacular methods to achieve his or her end’ (1996: 101). For me, this suggests that there is some kind of ‘filter’ that shapes what the public will come to know of suicide. Of course this is for a good reason given the upsetting nature of suicide. Yet despite this filter, something very strange has taken place in recent times. Very obvious, visible and contradictory interpretations of gender dominate representations of suicide. Put bluntly, suicide is a deeply biased gender-saturated spectacle. What is worse is that no-one really cares, or not enough to consider the possibility that there is more to this spectacle than meets the eye.
