Mass Media essay

It is highly possible that Stephen Bohler, “an undergraduate of the New York University who jumped to his death from one of the library’s upper interior walkways” committed suicide because of stress (Lipton, 2003, n. p. ). It may be because he is too overwhelmed by his school/school activities/school requirements (Lipton, 2003, n. p. ). In addition to that, if the experts examined him for use of hallucinogenic drugs and he was found to have been using such, then all the more that we can conclude that it really is stress that motivated him to commit suicide (Lipton, 2003, n. p. ).

Hallucinogens are said to contribute largely to change the mood of a person; if Stephen Bohler was stressed, then maybe he took the aforementioned drugs to alleviate his emotions (Lipton, 2003, n. p. ). Unfortunately since the drug causes feelings of emptiness, then that probably led to his suicide (Lipton, 2003, n. p. ). Eiji Kaneko’s Suicide On the other hand, Eiji Kaneko’s suicide may have been caused by psychological pain (Hevesi, 193, n. p. ).

This is because, it was said that he left a note, probably he wrote in there that he could not take it anymore and that suicide is the only solution he could think of to address his problems at that point (Hevesi, 193, n. p. ). In addition to that, since he is said to be quiet and shy, then these two characteristics of being an introvert may hamper some of his plans, leading him to experience psychological pain and eventually suicide (Hevesi, 193, n. p. ).

Yes, I do believe that images shown by mass media with regards to suicide contribute largely to further suicides; it gives people an idea on what to do in case they feel that they could not take it anymore. Meanwhile, I don’t believe that men and women are equally affected by these images; men are probably more wired to commit suicide because women can just openly share to others what they are going through while men usually keep it to themselves, and so images as such are likely to motivate men to commit suicide as well.

References

Hevesi, D. (1993). NYU Student Falls to his Death in Apparent Suicide, Police Say. Retrieved March 29, 2008 from http://query. nytimes. com/gst/fullpage. html? res=9F0CE7DE123CF932A15752C1A965958260&scp=4&sq=New+York+University+%2B+suicide&st=nyt Lipton, E. (2003). Second Suicide Leap Leaves New York University Shaken. Retrieved March 29, 2008 from http://query. nytimes. com/gst/fullpage. html? res=9A05EFDD133FF931A25753C1A9659C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2