The Action Alliance and its partners seek to improve messaging by focusing on three key groups: public messengers, news media, and entertainment media.
Public Messengers
Many groups—nonprofit organizations, businesses, charitable foundations, and others—routinely disseminate messages about suicide in websites, social media, educational materials, and other print and digital communications. It is important that this information be conveyed in ways that support suicide prevention rather than increase suicide risk.
The Action Alliance’s Framework for Successful Messaging provides guidance and tools and outlines four critical areas to consider when messaging to the public about suicide. This resource can be used by anyone who develops and disseminates suicide-related content.
The 988 Messaging Framework provides general guidance about when and how to develop messaging about 988.
988 Formative Research is an important starting point for 988 messaging efforts. It is intended to produce insights that can be used by the field to make research-informed decisions about how to encourage help-seeking, including use and/or access to 988.
Learn more about 988 Formative Research.
News and Entertainment Media
Research has found that how news media reports on suicide and how entertainment media portrays suicide can either promote hope and help-seeking or increase hopelessness and contagion risk. As part of its efforts to change the conversation about suicide to one of hope and resilience, the Action Alliance has collaborated with members of the news and entertainment media to effectively develop news coverage and on-screen depictions that educate the public about suicide and suicide prevention.
News media: The Action Alliance is committed to working with news media to tell authentic stories of hope and resiliency, for example:
Entertainment media: In collaboration with entertainment partners, the Action Alliance seeks to equip content creators, scriptwriters, and producers with the tools and resources to tell more balanced and authentic stories involving suicide and suicide prevention. Authentic and thoughtful portrayals reflecting best practice guidance can support suicide prevention efforts by preventing contagion, encouraging help-seeking, connecting those in crisis with resources, and ultimately changing the way viewers think and talk about suicide.
Resources include the following:
- Mental Health Media Guide – A groundbreaking, comprehensive resource for content creators designed to help expand positive mental health portrayals
- National Recommendations for Depicting Suicide – Recommendations from the Action Alliance to help content creators, scriptwriters, and producers tell more balanced and authentic stories involving suicide and suicide prevention
- Collaborations in entertainment messaging – A collection of stories about the Action Alliance’s past work