Durkheim의 사회적 자살 이론에 기반한 대한민국 자살 이슈 분석: 뉴스데이터 기반 LDA 토픽 모델링

초록

This study aims to structurally analyze the issue of suicide in South Korean society by applying Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic modeling to 31,382 suicide-related news articles collected from 1990 to 2024. The analysis identified 15 major topics, which were interpreted based on Durkheim’s theory of social suicide—categorized as egoistic suicide (e.g., social isolation, mental health issues, celebrity suicides), anomic suicide (e.g., economic crises, institutional instability, poverty), fatalistic suicide (e.g., oppression in the military and workplace, coercive authority), and altruistic suicide (e.g., suicide for honor). The findings indicate that economic downturns, weakened social integration, and power-driven oppression are closely associated with increased suicide rates. This analysis moves beyond conventional approaches that reduce suicide to individual psychological issues, offering a sociostructural perspective that frames suicide as a complex social phenomenon arising from contextual factors. Furthermore, the study empirically demonstrates how suicide is discursively constructed and socially perceived through media coverage, thereby supporting the validity of a social constructionist approach to suicide discourse. In terms of policy implications, the study suggests that suicide prevention strategies should go beyond individual-level interventions such as mental health treatment and instead incorporate structural responses, including alleviating economic insecurity, strengthening social networks, and dismantling systems of coercive power. It also emphasizes the need for responsible journalism and the formation of social discourse aimed at reducing stigma. However, this study has certain limitations, as the static nature of LDA topic modeling does not fully capture the temporal dynamics of suicide discourse or account for invisible cases that were not reported in the media, which poses constraints on a comprehensive understanding of the issue.

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