The media can play a powerful role in educating the public about suicide prevention. Stories about suicide can inform readers and viewers about the likely causes of suicide, its warning signs, trends in suicide rates, and recent treatment advances. They can also highlight opportunities to prevent suicide. Media stories about individual deaths by suicide may be newsworthy and need to be covered, but they also have the potential to do harm. Implementation of recommendations for media coverage of suicide has been shown to decrease suicide rates.

Reporting on Suicide: Recommendations for the Media was developed by the American Foundation of Suicide Prevention, American Association of Suicidology, and Annenberg Public Library in collaboration with the Office of the Surgeon General, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute of Mental Health, Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration, National Swedish Centre for Suicide Research and the New Zealand Youth Suicide Prevention Strategy.

Current and pending state and federal legislation