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Homicide-suicide is a tragic event characterized by multiple fatalities within the intimate relationships, familial bonds, and community networks. Our aim was to explore the extent of coverage of homicide-suicide cases in the newspaper reports delivered in Pakistan during the COVID-19 lockdown (March–August 2020). We conducted a quantitative content analysis of news- reports obtained from eight Pakistani newspapers published in English and Urdu languages and daily reviewed by the authors. A total of 50 news-reports have been selected and analyzed, documenting 107 deaths due to homicide-suicide incidents. The majority of these cases involved male perpetrators within family settings, such as parent-child and spousal/married couples, often attributed to factors such us familial discordance and poverty. Negligibly, reasons for homicide-suicides included mental health issues of the perpetrators. Gunshot wounds emerged as the most prevalent method of homicide-suicide. Given the familial backgrounds in most of cases, it is likely that they occurred within the domestic environments. These findings may suggest the need of specific family interventions across the country in order to prevent family discordances or cope with relevant issues within the families, as both may contribute to homicidal and suicidal incidents, either independently or concurrently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Suicidal hanging is common in Pakistan and is considered a serious challenge globally. We conducted a content analysis of reports about suicidal hangings published in six English-language newspapers in Pakistan between 1 January 2021 and 31 December 2022, employing a web-searching technique. 124 news reports were yielded; suicidal authors were males (68.5%), Muslims (69.4%), and unmarried (31.4%), aged 16- 30 years old. Ligatures employed in hanging suicides were ropes (28.2%), fabrics (20.9%), and electric wires (20.1%). The most frequent leverage-points selected in suicides were ceiling fans (37%) followed by trees (11.2%). Familial discords (19.2%) and poverty (9.6%) were the leading risk factors for hanging suicide. Most of the suicides (58%) occurred equally in the spring (29%) and autumn (29%) months. These evidences suggest that psychological interventions on families are crucial. Also, dealing with poverty and other social consequences in Pakistan as in the rest of the world may probably reduce the rate of yearly suicides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a lack of evidence regarding the rate of adherence to the World Health Organization (WHO) media guidelines of vernacular newspapers reporting on suicides in Pakistan. Also, the relevance of this report is based on the lack of official data regarding the number of suicides across the country. The aim of this study was to explore the rate of adherence to the WHO guidelines of two popular newspapers in reporting on suicides in Pakistan. We daily analysed the online version of two popular newspapers in Pakistan, the daily Jeejal (in Sindhi) and daily Jang (in Urdu), from 1 August 2021 to 31 July 2022; we performed a content analysis of news reporting on national suicides and evaluated their rate of adherence to the WHO media guidelines. One hundred and seventy-three reports of suicides were identified and analysed; 84% of them reported the names of victims, 70% reported their age, and 46% included information regarding their occupation. Characteristics of suicide methods were reported in 87% of reports, reasons for suicide in 66%, as well as locations in 87%. In general, 84% of newspapers reported incomplete information regarding suicide prevention and help-seeking, so we may conclude they were not fully adherent to the WHO recommendations. This study indicates that national vernacular newspapers may improve their reporting on suicides and should revise their policy in order to be adherent to the WHO guidelines. Also, better and responsible reporting may provide an accurate epidemiological source regarding suicide where official data are missing at the national level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To explore the recent phenomenon of English code-mixing in Sindhi language newspapers, the content analysis of Daily Kawish newspaper of Pakistan, interviews, and survey were applied. The English words were taken from news, and an attempt was madetofind their Sindhi alternatives. The majority of themhad alternative Sindhi wordsbut were not used in the news. Theinterviews regarding code-mixing were taken from reporters. The 50 copies of questionnaire were distributed among students from Shaheed Benazir Bhutto University, Shaheed Benazirabad. The majority of the respondents (28, 28 & 34) were alternate-day readers, read newspaper to receive news and updates, and consume one an hour on newspaper reading respectively, majority of them were satisfied with the language style of newspaper, and 31 as the majority of the respondents felt disturbance in understanding what they read when they find borrowed words amidst reading newspaper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The studies of newspaper media on women issues havewidely been carried out across the globe, but the question of how prominently are those issues covered in press media is left unanswered. To secure the answer to this question, this study was carried out doing quantitative content analysis of daily Jeejal newspaper. The six-month coverage of the said issues (extending from July 1, 2020 to December 31, 2020) was examined to this end. In total, 228 news related to women issues having an average ratio of 38 news a month were found in the newspaper, and the majority (130) of those were about honour killing and rape issues collectively. In terms of the placement of news, the majority (115) of the news were placed in the inside pages following 63 and 50 news placed in the front and back page of the newspaper respectively. Henceforth, the average rate of front-page news has stood 10.5 each month that is too insufficient as compared to note how serious are the issues prevailing across the country. Besides, the same statistics in terms of the average of inside pages news was 19 news each monthwhich is also insufficient because the inside pages contain different pages other than front and back pages. Thus, prominence in this study was categorized into two portions, frequency and the placement of news. Giving prominence to the news by frequency, the newspaper has succeeded but it has failed giving prominence to the news by placement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]