The Frame Study of Suicidal Stories --- A Case Study on Peach Gramma of Business Weekly

Business Weekly released a series of cover stories named One Taiwan．Two Worlds starting from 2003. One Taiwan．Two Worlds is a series of stories discussing different disadvantaged minority group issues. The series not only received many awards, but were also highly praised by the judges. However, when Peach Gramma, a One Taiwan．Two Worlds cover story discussing suicide issues, was published in the Business Weekly 1021st release, the story stimulated many heated debates and was criticized by many people. The main focus of this thesis is to discuss the framework of Peach Gramma and to find out what is a good suicide story. The research method of this thesis is the frame analysis method. Peach Gramma was published in June 18, 2007; therefore, the cover story would be collected in order for its frame analyzation in this thesis. This thesis would also point out the high level, middle level and low level frames of Peach Gramma. On the other hand, this thesis would take the six guidelines of reporting a suicide story as the main reference on how to write a good suicide story. The six guidelines of reporting a suicide story are guidelines that summarize the relating suicide-report guidelines of the World Health Organization and the Taiwan media. This thesis would also discuss about the four critisizations Peach Gramma bear, and the psycological, physical, social viewpoints of previous suicide studies. he research results are divided into the following three main categories. The high level, middle level and low level frames of Peach Gramma based on the frame analysis method. The results of analyzing Peach Gramma based on the four critisizations Peach Gramma bear. And the results of analyzing Peach Gramma based on the six guidelines of reporting a suicide story.irst, the high level frame of Peach Gramma focused mainly on psychological suicide reasons as its main theme, the cases and plot of Peach Gramma also focused mainly on psychological suicide cases and plots, and the rhetoric of Peach Gramma also focused mainly on psychological descriptions and narrations.econd, Peach Gramma did lack the plight of the social structure, and it contained generalizations that made error impact on the suicide issue. However, it did not present the story over-sensationaly and its attributions did not contain error statements, though they were simplified and seriously unbalanced.hird, Peach Gramma did not completely stand to the six guidelines of reporting a suicide story. That is to say, Peach Gramma can improve as the following: avoid mentioning suicide events and single suicide reasons on its front page, avoid simplifying and singularing suicide reasons, avoid publishing the names and pictures of the suicide family, avoid mentioning suicide details, present efficient mental health education and professional service information, and present the suicide issue appropriately.