View source for Christine Chubbuck

'''Christine Chubbuck''' (August 24, 1944 – July 15, 1974) was the host of a morning talk show in [[Sarasota, Florida]]. She was also a [[:wikt:volunteer|volunteer]] at a local [[hospital]]. There she gave puppet shows for the [[mental retardation|mentally handicapped]] [[children]]. She is  best known as the [[television]] [[Presenter|broadcaster]] who committed [[:wikt:suicide|suicide]] during a live television [[:wikt:program|program]].

== Career ==

Chubbuck was born in Hudson, [[Ohio]], on 24 August 1944.<ref name=Quinn>Sally Quinn, 'Christine Chubbuck: 29, Good-Looking, Educated, A Television Personality. Dead. Live and in Color', ''The Washington Post'', Washington, DC (Aug 4, 1974), pp. F1–F3</ref> She grew up in a middle-class family and attended [[Laurel School]] for Girls. She went to [[:wikt:college|college]] at [[Ohio State University]]. Then she graduated from [[Boston University]] with a degree in broadcasting.<ref name=Quinn/> She held several jobs with small television stations. In 1973 she was hired by WXLT-TV in Sarasota, Florida as the [[:wikt:host|host]] of a morning talk show.<ref name=Quinn/> According to her co-workers she was pretty, easy to get along with and did a good job.<ref>Steven Payne, ''Carrying the Torch'' (Dartford, U.K.: Xlibris Publishing Company, 2011), p. 13</ref> According to her mother she wanted a family but had not found the right person to marry yet.<ref name=Quinn/> In her spare time she held [[Puppet|puppet shows]] for [[Mental illness|mentally handicapped]] children at a local hospital.<ref name=Payne14>Steven Payne, ''Carrying the Torch'' (Dartford, U.K.: Xlibris Publishing Company, 2011), p. 14</ref>

== Death == 

Three weeks before her death she had received approval to do a program on [[suicide]].<ref>Cynthia Ceilán, ''Thinning the Herd: Tales of the Weirdly Departed'' (Guilford, CT: Lyons Press, 2008), p. 36</ref> On the morning of Monday, July 15, 1974, during her broadcast, Chubbuck read a prepared script. She said: "In keeping with Channel 40's policy of bringing you the latest in blood and guts, and in living color, you are going to see another first, an attempted suicide."<ref name=Joiner81>Thomas E. Joiner, ''Myths about Suicide'' (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010), p. 81</ref> Chubbuck then shot herself with a [[Gun|handgun]].<ref name=Joiner81/> It was not a quick decision but an event she had planned for months.{{efn|While Christine Chubbuck clearly planned her death, there is concern that the effects of news stories can trigger [[:wikt:imitate|imitators]] to commit suicide also. In a study by Kenneth Bollen and David Phillips in the ''American Sociological Review'' the authors determined that her death, although very public, probably did not cause many imitators.<ref name=BollenPhillips>Kenneth A. Bollen and David P. Phillips, 'Imitative Suicides: A National Study of the Effects of Television News Stories', ''American Sociological Review'',  Vol. 47, No. 6 (Dec., 1982), p. 804</ref> They also found the average time an imitator might act was a week to ten days after a news story.<ref name=BollenPhillips/>}}<ref name=Joiner81/> Chubbuck had even joked about shooting herself on the air but nobody had apparently paid much attention.<ref name=Joiner81/> She had been dealing with [[depression (mental illness)|depression]] for several years before she died.<ref name=Payne14/> Chubbuck was 29 years old.

== Notes ==
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== References ==
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== Other websites ==
* [http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2008/12/02/why-do-people-broadcast-their-suicides.html Constantino Diaz-Duran, ''Why Do People Broadcast Their Suicides?'', The Daily Beast (12.02.08)]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chubbuck, Christine}}
[[Category:1944 births]]
[[Category:1974 deaths]]
[[Category:Boston University alumni]]
[[Category:Suicides by firearm in the United States]]
[[Category:Television personalities from Ohio]]


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