Sabrina Aiko Wirasakti

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Academic Writing
The Influence of “13 Reasons Why” Series on Teenagers’ Perception Towards Suicide

Sabrina Aiko Wirasakti

Communication Studies Dept., Universitas Gadjah Mada

I. INTRODUCTION

I.1 Background

In these past years, suicide is one of the issues that often happens, especially among

teenagers. The phenomena can be caused by many reasons, but one of the most common

factors are stress and depression. People who suffer from stress or depression tend to hurt

themselves, and often leads to suicide. According to the World Health Organization, suicide

is the second leading cause of death among people in the age range of 15 to 29 years old. On

March 31, 2017, Netflix released the series "13 Reasons Why", serial about a 17-year-old

high school teenage girl who committed suicide after she got repeatedly bullied and

assaulted. Before her death, she prepared thirteen tapes that each had recordings of herself

expressing her feelings to those she blames for her suicide; her friends, teachers, and

relatives. Since it aired, the series has attracted the attention of many health experts who see

the show as one of the films that raises a relatable topic among teenagers now days; sexual

assault, substance abuse, bullying, suicide, gun violence and more.

Media, specifically film or movie, has been one of the platforms to express and deliver a

certain message to wide-scale audience. However, not all that is served in the media can be

digested well by the public. In this context, the series sparked controversy from a number of

parties, as it was thought to develop suicide ideas. Some critics say that the content of this

series is too challenging to be accepted by most people who are not supervised and restricted,

so some teenagers may not be able to process the true meaning of the story and interpret the

storyline from the right perspectives. However, the creators of this series have explained that
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the reason they chose the topic of the story is because they think making an open dialogue

about suicide can help prevent it by providing the information and empathy needed for those

who are considering suicide.

It's not a hard thing for people to feel that they have correlations with the 13 Reasons Why

show, a serial based on Jay Asher's novels. Not only physical abuse and assault, this series

also portrayed online harassments which is not apart from things that often happen in

everyday life. The National Association of School Psychologists or NASP states that the

series has a very strong way of delivering the story, so it has potential to direct the audience

in taking inappropriate decisions that are taken by the characters played in the show. This

paper aims to explain how the serial have made an impact towards teenagers’ perspective

regarding suicide by analyzing suicide cases that has already happened and some testimonials

or reviews of teenagers who has already watched the series. The writer will choose some

cases and furtherly explore the story behind people who committed suicide after watching the

series and its correlation towards their perception in suicide. Therefore, this paper will use

qualitative as the method of the research. As explained before, since suicide have already

happened to many teenagers these days, it could be considered as one of an urgent issue

among teenagers, so anything that could be the factors that triggers suicide needs to be

prevented immediately.

Related Papers:

Rosa, G. S. da, Andrades, G. S., Caye, A., Hidalgo, M. P., Oliveira, M. A. B. de, & Pilz, L.

K. (2018, October 30). Thirteen ReasonsWhy: The impact of suicide portrayal on

adolescents' mental health.

Journal of Adolescent Health 63 (2018), Why we should Worry About “13 Reasons Why”
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Keith Hawton and Kathryn E Williams, The Influence of Media on Suicide (Januar, 2003)

I.2 Literature Review

Suicides in Young People in Ontario Following the Release of “13 Reasons Why”

In the paper, it is stated that the writer had concerns in the series of “13 Reasons Why” since

it has controversial among the society and raised fears for its audience. The paper is compiled

to study the percentage of youth’s that committed suicide in the United States following the

release of the show, so it examines the relationship between the show’s release and youth’s

suicide in Canada’s most populous province, Ontario. The data that was used in this paper

was analyzed from January 2013 to March 2017, and they predicted expected deaths until

December 2017. Results from the research was that the level of suicide had increased since

January until December, the observation after March corresponded to forty more deaths

following, which was a 18% increase.

Why We Should Worry About “13 Reasons Why”

This paper studies about how suicide is triggered by peer, celebrity or fictional characters,

where it is often referred as “copycat” of suicides. The writer had concerns that the show may

trigger actual suicidal behavior and completed suicide. The research was to demonstrate a

temporal relationship between child and teenagers self-harm with intent to die (SHID) and

the release of 13 Reasons Why, although to keep away from privacy violation, individual

cases of SHID was linked directly Netflix and is not attached in this research. The writer is

fully aware that the series has well-intention towards teenagers, however it has made

potentials in motivating the teens to act on thoughts of suicide, leading to a copycat suicide
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phenomenon. This study was conducted at a single children’s hospital in one state in the

United Sates.

The Influence of Media on Suicide

The paper titled “The Influence of Media on Suicide” contains research of how portrayal of

suicidal behavior in media may have potentially negative influences towards the people. They

believe that television and newspaper reports for actual suicide, film and television portrayals

of suicides, and suicide in literature may be the one of the causes of suicidal behavior among

teenagers. Especially when the methods of the suicide are specified in detail, or when the

story is portrayed dramatically and prominently such as attaching photographs of the

incident, creating large headlines and reports of celebrity suicides.

I.3 Method

This paper has chosen the method to obtain data for the research. First of all, the research

approach that is used in this paper is qualitative, where it will focus more on meanings,

concepts, definitions, characters, etc and not to counts or measures. The data that this paper

will obtain will then be analyzed to draw a conclusion. With the qualitative approach, the

writer hopes to get detailed data in form of written words from a person or a sample that is

used as a research respondent.

The participant in this research will be random samples of testimonials who had already

watched the series and also cases of suicide that was caused by this series that had already

happened in the past. The testimonials are university students, and since this paper uses

qualitative method, the data will be approached by interviewing the chosen students. From
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one-on-one interviews, the writer hopes to get a portray of the individual’s perspective

towards the series by asking their comments towards the movie. Other questions will be

asked regarding the topic, such as, “Did you learn any value from watching the serial?”, “Do

you think that the serial had made an impact towards your behavior?”, “ Do you think this

serial brings a negative value or a positive value?”, etc.

For the case examples, the writer will use case study as the method in collecting the data.

Books, internet, news, and any kinds of other medias will be used to analyze several cases of

suicide due to the serial. The cases will then be observed whether the serial had strong

contribution as a factor of the suicide or not. After the two approach is done, both the

interview and case study will be compared and analyzed in order to find the correlation

related to the topic. The result of the interview and case studies will also be supported by the

theories related to the causes of the suicide itself. With having two approaches of gaining

data, the writer hopes to give a valid portray of the teenagers’ perception towards suicide

after watching the 13 Reasons Why serial.

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II. RESULT AND DISCUSSION

II.1Result

II.1.1 Interview

The first method of gathering the data for this paper is by interviewing people who had

already watched the “13 Reasons Why” serial. The interview that is obtained for this paper is

based on four people, two men and two women, in purpose of getting two different

perspectives. There are five questions that are offered from the interview:

1. Did your perspective towards suicide changed after watching the serial 13 Reasons

Why?

2. After watching the serial, do you feel like you have any mutual experience with the

characters in the film? Ex: same problems, same environment, etc.

3. After watching the serial, do you feel that the film brings you an education towards

preventing suicide, or the other way around?

4. According to your opinion, does this serial delivers a negative value or a positive

value?

From the questions above, the writer hopes to get data that will support a certain argument

regarding the interviewee’s perception towards suicide. These are the result of the interviews:

1. Najlaa Lathifah Wistiandono

a) University: University of Indonesia

b) Faculty: Faculty of Political and Social Science, majoring in Communication

Studies
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c) Age: 18

d) Answers of interview:

From the first question she explained that after watching the serial, her perspective towards

changed. She began to think more critically on the concept of committing “suicide”, her

interpretation towards the movie was that suicide is not something people should be

considering. From watching the serial, she felt that she did had some mutual feelings with the

characters, but she doesn’t want to “self-claim” herself towards it. She doesn’t want to be

self-diagnosing herself towards the issues that the characters are experiencing in the film. In

her opinion, the serial is trying to deliver how suicide is bad for not only the person itself, but

also to the impact that they give to the society. So although there are still many controversies

among the society, she feels that the serial has a positive intention in the purpose of making

the film, which is raising awareness on people’s education towards suicide but it’s just a

matter of the people’s perspective.

2. Kayra Ayana Maharizzati

a) University: University of Diponegoro

b) Faculty: Faculty of Psychology

c) Age: 18

d) Answers of interview:

According to Kayra Ayana or Ayana, the show opened up new sights in her perspective

towards suicide. She feels that the film leads her back to her own experience in her current

life, especially from the social aspect where she sometimes feels pressured in her group of

friends. In Ayana’s opinion, this film might be dangerous and threatening for people who are

involved in the same issues as the characters in the film. Although she knows that before the

show starts, there are reminders that this show is not purposed to bring negative impacts to
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people, but the film could be risky to people who are not able to interpret the film properly.

For her, the film could be educating for some people, but there are some parts of the films

that are too inappropriate for people who might be going through the same thing.

3. Dwika Rahman Sasmita Putra

a) University: University of Gadjah Mada

b) Faculty: Faculty of Social and Political Science, majoring in Management and

Public Policy

c) Age: 18

d) Answers of interview:

Dwika watched the 13 Reasons Why serial not long after it was aired. He doesn’t feel that the

film has changed his perspective on suicide, because he thinks that the serial was just a

fictional film to make people have the portray of how suicide can be very severe. Dwika’s

feels that if people had strong principles on their selves, they won’t be affected by the

atmosphere of serial. Therefore, for him, the serial brings a positive value since it has

educated people on how committing suicide will not give any advantage to anyone, it will

only burden friends and families of the victim. Dwika also thinks that the Netflix series is a

good platform to campaign about the suicide issue and also a platform for people to seek

help.

4. Fabian Suhidin Putra

a) University: University of Gadjah Mada

b) Faculty: Faculty of Mathematics and Science, majoring in Computer Science

c) Age: 18

d) Answers of interview:
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After watching the serial, Fabian’s perspective towards suicide changed. He realized that

pressures in social life can lead to many negative actions, and one of them is suicide. Before

watching the serial, he didn’t realize how the society could be so powerful and Fabian also

feels that he has some common experience with the serial’s storyline, especially how the

main character of the serial, Hannah Baker, had done suicide but still wanted to prove her

friends are the cause of her death. After watching the serial, he thinks that the film

successfully made the audience dive deep into the ups and downs of the story, and share a

sympathetic feeling towards the characters and the plot of the series. By also feeling

contributed in the film, Fabian thinks that the “13 Reasons Why” serial has thought the

audience of the impacts of committing suicide and why it is not beneficial for people.

However, overall Fabian thinks that the value that the audience take from the film is based on

the people, some people may think that it gives a negative impact and some may think it

gives a positive impact. He feels that it is important to pay attention on the way people

interpret the message that is delivered by the writers and film makers.

II.1.2 Case Study

The next method is collected by doing case studies. According to the Journal of the American

Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, months following the show’s debut in March

2017, there was a 28.9% increase of suicide numbers among the people of ages 10 to 17. The

numbers of suicides that time was greater than any month over the past five years. The cases

below are some real incidents caused by the “13 Reasons Why” series:

1. Emily Bragg

Emily Bragg was a 19-year-old girl from Westminster who committed suicide due to her

struggle of depression and anxiety. She passed away at Saturday, the 24 th of June 2017, after

watching the first couple of episodes of the “13 Reasons Why” serial. During the age of 16,
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Emily was diagnosed with a bipolar disorder. Emily’s mother, Joyce Deithorn, had already

begged her daughter to stop watching the serial since she believe that the show could be

harmful for Emily. However, Emily could not obey her mother wishes and continued to

watch the teen suicide drama. Although the causes of her suicide can be very complex, but

the serial may be one of the factors that motivates her action of suicide. Not long after her

death, Netflix had made sudden decision on removing graphic suicide scene that appeared on

the show, based on the advice of mental health experts.

2. Bella Herndon and Priscilla Chiu

After watching the Netflix show 13 Reasons Why, two 15-year-old girls killed themselves

days apart. Both the families of Bella Herndon and Priscilla Chiu blame the show for the

deaths of the teenage girls. Bella was found in her room by her mother just days before her

16th birthday. Her father’s disappointment had accused that she shows made a very bad

impact towards the society and they were making money off the misery of people. But on the

other hand, Priscilla Chiu’s uncle said that he should’ve noticed signs since Priscilla had long

battelled depression due to her grades that were dropping and her hatred towards school.

Although he also thinks that the show gives small percentage of trigger for the audiences.

Priscilla watched the show before she hanged herself in April.

3. Franco Alonso Lazo Medrano

Franco Alonso Lazo Medrano was a 23-year-old industrial engineer from Peru that attempted

suicide by jumping out from the fourth-floor apartment building. During the jumped, he

yelled “I can’t stand a heartbreak”. He survived after, but then died at the San Juan de Dios

Hospital not long after the attempt. Franco left two suicide notes, one of them was for a
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woman named Claudia and another listing names of people for whom he had recorded tapes,

claiming these people were the ones who caused him to commit suicide.

4. Emily Simone Lukaszek

At the age of 16, Emily Simone once attempted suicide. Not long after that she watched the

Netflix series, 13 Reasons Why. She watched the serial very thoroughly; she wanted to make

sure that she understands every part of the story. Turns out that when the suicide scene came

in, she had flashbacks of her own experience and from that time on she knew how suicide

could be very brutal and it was no longer an option for her. Emily even said “Within the 13

reasons leading to the main character's decision to die by suicide, I saw 13 reasons to

reconsider.” According to her point of view, 13 Reasons Why portrayed the common flaws of

humanity. The most important part of the film that made her reconsider suicide was when

Emily finally made it to the final scene where Hannah, the main character, committed

suicide. Emily can’t help but realize how bad the impact the character’s death had made upon

everyone in her world. These information is obtained from the writings that Emily posted on

one of a blog website, where she titled the article as “13 Reasons to Reconsider”.

II.2Discussion

The result of interviews and case studies shows several perspectives towards the 13 Reasons

Why serial. From the data results, this paper will try to analysis the perspective of the people

who have already watch the series. Starting from the interview results, there are pros and

cons towards the serial. The first source, Najlaa, explained about how she feels that 13

Reasons Why is nothing other than a serial that aims to help people who are in need. She

thinks that the serial portrays how suicide can be very bad for the victim and the people

around her, same as how the fourth source, Fabian, feels about the serial.
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The third source, Dwika, strongly supports Najlaa and Fabian’s argument, where he feels

that this serial gives a portray of suicide, and the serial portrayed it as very ugly and very

damaging. The three of them agrees that the serial is purposed to educate the society by

raising awareness on how suicide can be very dangerous to people, and this serial could be

one of the platforms to help teenagers who are suffering from suicidal thoughts. Although,

Fabian has one different perspective, he thinks that the value that is taken from this serial

could be from two point of views. When he watched the film, he sometimes feels relatable

with the characters in the show, although luckily, he is aware that the films are made to

express how we shouldn’t be doing negative actions when people feel socially pressured. But

he thinks that not everyone is as well-educated as him, so some people could interpret the

film from the wrong perspective and might understand the show as a motivation towards

negative actions, especially suicide.

While the second source of interview, Ayana, has a different perception on the 13 Reasons

Why serial. In her opinion, although this serial is desired to help and educate the society on

the danger of suicide, but not everyone can interpret the film properly. People who might

have been experiencing same issues could follow the actions the decisions that the character

made. From the interview done with Ayana, she explained how the serial was watched by

different type of audience. She was very concerned because she realized that although there

are some people could see the serial as a “light in the darkness”, but some may use the film as

an inspiration or ideas of suicide. Henceforth, from the interview, it could be concluded that

75% of the result agrees with the creators of the 13 Reasons Why serial, that is to make

something that can hopefully help people because suicide should never ever be an option

(Selena Gomez, the producer of 13 Reasons Why). The remaining 15% of the interview result
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supports that the serial may threaten the society, since not everyone has the capability to

properly interpret the positive side of the film.

The next discussion will be analyzed from several case studies. This paper chose three

famous cases that is related to the 13 Reasons Why serial. The first case study is from a news

where a teenage girl named Emily Bragg committed suicide after she watched the show. Her

mother, Joyce Deithorn, experienced PTSD or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder after she found

her own daughter has died due to suicide. She said that she truly believes the show was final

thing that just pushed her daughter over the edge. After this incident, Netflix edited one of the

scenes in the series. Indirectly, with Netflix deleting one of the scenes means that they claim

that the serial could be one of the causes of Emily Bragg’s death. From this first source of

case study, it can be concluded that one of the scenes of the show can be life-threatening for

some people because it was proven that Emily could not handle that much of graphic and

risked her life due to it.

The next case study is about two girls from California, Bella Herndon and Priscilla Chiu.

They both committed suicide just days apart. Two of the girls had already experience

depression and anxiety, days after watching the 13 Reasons Why, they became surer on their

decision on ending their lives. Bella’s parents believe that they have the right to blame the

Netflix series for their daughter’s death. Priscilla’s uncle, who was at that time her guardian,

also agrees that the show leads to more alternative for cyberbullying and other teenage issues.

The third case study is about a man who did a very similar method of suicide as Hannah

Baker, the main character of the serial. As explained before, he jumped from a fourth-floor

apartment and left notes along with notes and tapes about people who he blames for his
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death. This case could be one of the examples of how the show could be an inspiration for

people to learn new methods of suicide.

The last case study is different from the two previous ones, Emily Simone is one of the

people who feel the benefit of the 13 Reasons Why series. She wrote an article on how the

serial became one of the reasons for her to change her mind about suicide. She is one of the

actual prove that the serial can be a solution from depression, stress, anxiety, or maybe other

mental disorders. Emily Simone said that the serial gave hopes to her after she thought death

was the appropriate solution of her problems.

From the three case studies, there are two different impacts of the serial. The first one is

people who digest the serial in a negative way that leads them to do unwanted actions which

they followed from the serials. Where the other one is people who saw this serial as a

motivation for them to keep fighting, and to be sure that there are people who can be reached

for help. The first three cases can be categorized as “copycat suicide” theory. Copycat suicide

is when a person attempts suicide due to their knowledge of other people’s suicide

experience, or from portrays of original suicide on television or other medias. From the three

suicide cases, they attempted suicide based on the things that they have already saw in the

media. Mental health professionals have been long concern about the depiction of suicide in

media since the “copycat effect” now often happens among vulnerable young people. That is

why journalists and reporters are urged to never publish the method or location of a suicide in

their reports or articles.

The suicide cases can also be one of the examples of Emile Durkheim’s theory that he wrote

in his book called “Suicide”. Durkheim has a theory that every people has their own reasons
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for committing suicide, but suicide is never caused by the person itself. When people are

already considering suicide, they tend to indicate their points of weakness, and when that

happens, external factors easily enter to destroy them and motivates them more to commit

suicide. According to Emile Durkheim, one of the causes of suicide is influenced by

imitation. “that imitation is a purely psychological phenomenon appears clearly from its

occurrence between individuals connected by no social bond.” (Durkheim,1952). The

imitation theory says that people who commits suicide because they tend to follow the actions

of others.

From the interviews and study cases that has already been done, it can be concluded that

there are various point on views regarding the recently aired serial, 13 Reasons Why.

However, it could be grouped into two different perspectives. Based on the interview, there

are people who see the serial from the positive aspect, such as source number one (Najlaa),

source number three (Dwika) and source number four (Fabian). From the case study, Emily

Simone Lukaszek is also one of the people who interpreted the film positively. However,

there are also people who contradicts the serial, such as source number two of the interview,

Ayana and three cases of suicide as already explained in the case study.

III. CONCLUSION

There are many different perception towards the Netflix serial, 13 Reasons Why. Some

people might understand and interpret the show from both the negative and the positive

aspect. From the positive aspect, the people’s perspective correspond to the film maker’s

purpose of creating the film. The film makers took extra precautions before the episode starts

to alert viewers to the nature of content, they also created a global website to help find local

mental resources to those who are in need. Some audiences have already utilize the show as a
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platform to seek help, and also a motivation for them to be aware that there are still hope in

the wold.

From the negative aspect, there are audiences of the film that are still unable to digest the

show the way it is supposed to. Some people feel related to the film and tend to imitate the

character’s actions in the show. Therefore, many people are accusing the show supports the

act of suicide, while the film makers very strongly believe that they did the exact opposite. It

is outside anyone’s power to control how people see and understand a certain movie, but

there are some things that can be done to prevent inappropriate interpretations, such as

removing graphics of suicide scenes and not elaborating detailed methods of suicide.

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