Covering Student Death by Suicide: A Case Study on College Student Newspapers Navigating the News and Its Aftermath

To understand how student journalists handle news coverage surrounding suicide, this study took a case study approach and analyzed how two student newspaper staffs at U.S.-based universities reported on the topic throughout the 2022–2023 academic year, in which multiple student deaths by suicide occurred on each campus. Guided by the literature on trauma in journalism and the Communication Theory of Coping, and through interviews with reporters, editors, and the newspapers’ advisors and a thematic analysis of the newspapers’ coverage during that academic year, we were able to glean insight into how coverage decisions were made, how students navigated such a sensitive topic, and how they enacted care for each other during and after the coverage period. Our findings underscore the pivotal role of the newspaper advisor in helping students navigate such sensitive reporting.