Summer 2019
The Power of the Media: How News and Entertainment Affect Mental Health Stigma
by Lydia Aimone
I was listening to the radio during my commute this morning when I heard yet another story about someone who had been charged with a violent crime and the sentence they were to receive. The story said that this person’s lawyers were advocating for leniency, because he had a history of trauma and mental illness. That was where the report ended, without any other information or discussion about individuals with mental health disorders. There was nothing mentioned about the fact that people with mental health disorders are more likely to be the victims of violent crimes than the perpetrators,1 nor any effort to provide factual information about mental illness in general. This made my blood boil a little. I found myself wondering how other listeners were interpreting this story, and how this story affected their opinions about mental illness. With all the stigma that people with mental illness face, how those opinions form and what kind of information people are exposed to is something that comes into question.
If you are or know someone with lived experience, that informs your knowledge and view of mental health consumers. People without direct contact with someone with a mental illness are reliant on other avenues to learn the facts about behavioral health. According to one source, “research has shown that many people get their information about mental illness from the mass media”2 greatly impacting how people think about this topic. Depending on the source, the accuracy of that information can vary greatly. Some news and entertainment make an effort to discuss and depict mental illness in a well-informed way that gives full context to these experiences, while others perpetuate stigma by negatively portraying characters or individuals, or by leaving out relevant information that fully humanizes those that experience mental illness.
The overall goal of the media, whether news, television, or film, is to attract an audience. Which stories are told and how the people in them are portrayed is largely based on how likely it is that the audience will find them interesting or important, and how well they evoke emotions from that audience.2 Writers often “misrepresent mental illness simply because it creates conflict in a story. And conflict is interesting – it’s what draws an audience in.”3 But sensationalizing mental health conditions, whether positively or negatively, does an injustice to us all.
At one time, it was very easy to tell which character in a movie or TV show had a mental illness: they would be “the strange outsider who would hurt or kill a much loved character and be locked up in a mental institution for life.”4 The portrayal of mental illness in entertainment has improved. There are more stories with fully human characters who have a behavioral health disorder who are not reduced to a diagnosis or stereotype. For instance, while the film Silver Linings Playbook does create some controversy about the portrayal of mental illness, the characters of Pat and Tiffany are unequivocally written as three-dimensional people, not defined by their symptoms alone.
Accurate depictions of mental health disorders in both news and entertainment media are integral in increase mental health literacy. In one public opinion poll about mental illness representation in TV storylines, 60 percent of respondents said that seeing a character with a mental health problem had increased their understanding. However, certain experiences and diagnoses are still maligned more than others. Nearly the same percentage of respondents said that schizophrenia is more negatively portrayed than other mental health problems.5 The statement that schizophrenia is more negatively represented in media is supported by research. A study, which analyzed how the description of mental illness changed in newspaper articles from 2008 to 2014, indicated that coverage for disorders such as depression and anxiety “were more often reported in an anti-stigmatizing manner”6 than disorders such as schizophrenia, which were more heavily stigmatized.
While it may be tempting to shrug off an inaccurate portrayal of a mental illness by saying “it’s just a story,” incorrect information lends itself to people associating mental illness with criminal behavior, and perpetuates unfounded fear and mistrust towards those individuals. Additionally, portrayals of characters with mental health conditions as incapable of being productive members of society,7 or unable to have healthy relationships, contribute to the social isolation and discrimination of people with these conditions. It can also lead to higher levels of internalized stigma among individuals with mental health disorders, which is when a person applies stigmatizing beliefs and attitudes to themselves.8 Research has shown that high levels of internalized stigma can make people less likely to seek help from a professional.9
While creating change within the media to combat stigma might feel daunting, there is evidence that things can change for the better. In 2013, the Associated Press released a set of guidelines for the media on how to talk about mental illness accurately. These guidelines include not using derogatory terms such as “crazy” or “insane,” not assuming that mental illness was a factor in a violent crime, and generally not describing “an individual as mentally ill unless it is clearly pertinent to a story and the diagnosis is properly sourced.”10 Even with these guidelines, entertainment and news media still often fall short of portraying or discussing behavioral health disorders in a fully contextualized manner, but much work still needs to be done.
References
1. MentalHealth.gov (2017). Mental health myths and facts. Retrieved from mentalhealth.gov/basics/mental-health-myths-facts
2. Tartakovsy, M. (2019). Media’s damaging depictions of menal illness. Retrieved from psychcentral.com/lib/medias-damagingdepictions-of-mental-illness/
3. America Press Institute (n.d.) Journalism essentials. Retrieved from americanpressinstitute.org/journalism-essentials/makes-goodstory/
4. Sandy. (April 8, 2018). Ways mental illness is commonly misrepresented in the media. ICANotes. Retrieved from icanotes. com/2018/04/11/ways-mental-illness-is-commonly-misrepresentedin-the-media/
5. Regan, J. (January 19, 2018). Improving representations of mental health on TV. Mind. Retrieved from mind.org.uk/information-support/your-stories/improving-representations-of-mental-health-on-tv/
6. Regan, J.
7. Rhydderch, D., Krooupa, A.M., Shefer, G., Goulden, R., Williams, P., Thornicroft, A., … Henderson, C. (2016). Changes in newspaper coverage of mental illness from 2008 to 2014 in England. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 134, 45–52.
8. Smith, B. (2015). Mental illness stigma in the media. The Review: A Journal of Undergraduate Research, 16(10), 50-63.
9. Bathje G.J., Marston H.N. (2014) Self-Stigmatization. In: Teo T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology. Springer, New York, NY.
10. Smith, B.
11. Colford, P., & White, E. M. (March 7, 2013). Entry on mental illness is added to AP stylebook. Associate Press. Retrieved from https://www.ap.org/press-releases/2013/entry-on-mental-illness-isadded-to-ap-stylebook