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The Media's Take on Mental Health - Coggle Diagram
The Media's Take on Mental Health
William Shakespeare's
MacBeth
A story of political ambition, power, and mental health.
MacBeth and his wife felt guilty after murdering King Duncan to secure the Scottish Throne.
MacBeth's wife began acting strange: sleepwalking and muttering to herself.
MacBeth takes wife to see a doctor regarding her illness
Doctor responds: "Not so sick, my Lord, as she is troubled with thick-coming fancies that keep her from her rest"
Here, the doctor makes a distinction between mental and physical illness.
Mental: thick-coming fancies. Physical: keeps her from her rest
Macbeth is a great example of the media's portrayal of mental health in the 17th century.
Macbeth asks the doctor to, "Raze out the written troubles of the brain and with some sweet oblivious anecdote cleanse the stuffed bosom of that perilous stuff which weighs upon her heart?"
When the doctor can't guarantee success, Macbeth changed his mind, stating, "Throw physics (medical care) to the dogs. I'll have none of it."
Media Portrayals (Positives & Negatives)
Positive: 1997 Romantic Comedy "As Good As It Gets"
Male lead, Jack Nicholson, suffered from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
Movie did a good job portraying the effects of his illness in his relationships and everyday life.
Positive: Director Ron Howard directed a movie, "A Beautiful Mind."
Male lead, Russell Crowe, is a Nobel prize winning mathematician who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia.
Movie did a good job portraying his struggles and recovery of his illness and how it affected his family and career.
Negatives: Eastern Connecticut wrote, "Mental Illness Dominated Top Crimes in 2016."
Daily News of Jacksonville, North Carolina wrote: "Officials say Crime and Mental Illness go Hand-in-Hand."
In May 2013, a Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel wrote, "Triple Homicide Suspect Long Struggled with Mental Illness."
Studies looking at the Portrayal of Mental Illness in the Media
1997: researchers looked at the portrayal of characters with mental illness on television shows
Found that they were often shown committing crimes, especially violent ones.
The characters with mental illness were 10x more violent than other characters in the show.
They were also 10-20x more violent than real people with mental illness in the United States
2003: Researchers looked at about 2,000 newspaper articles.
Commonly found stories that told how dangerous people with mental illness are to others and themselves.
Found relatively few stories regarding the recovery and accomplishments of people with mental illness.
The ratio of negative to positive declined from 1989-1999; negative stories still outnumbers the positives that portrayed people with mental illness.
Emma McGinty and her team from Hopkins published "Trends in News Media Coverage of Mental Illness in the United States, 1995-2014."
They looked at content of 400 randomly selected news stories from both television and print media regarding mental illness.
Half of the stories talked about violent behaviors committed by people with mental illness.
Researchers did not find any improvements over the 20 year research; stories became more negative. Consequently, stigma against people with mental illness increased.
As a result, people with mental illness are hesitant to seek treatment and to continue with therapy once diagnosed.
Speculation in the Media
March 2015: Germanwings Flight 9525 took off from Barcelona heading to Dusseldorf.
Half an hour after takeoff, aircraft rapidly descended. All 150 people were killed when plane crashed into the French Alps.
Turns out, pilot was locked out of cockpit and the copilot set the autopilot to a low altitude, therefore leading the plane to crash in the mountains.
Copilot had a psychiatric history, which was later confirmed. He was being treated for depression in 2008.
2012: Sandy Hook Shooting
Psychology Today asked, "Was Adam Lanza an Undiagnosed Schizophrenic?" with the sub-headline, "And Could a Proper Diagnosis Have Averted the Newton Massacre?"
The New York Times wrote, "Our Failed Approach to Schizophrenia." They said that Lanza's act strongly suggested undiagnosed schizophrenia.
This statement by NYTimes is false; as these acts of violence are not diagnostic or suggestive of any specific mental disorder.
2013: Ann Coulter, a conservative provocateur, proclaimed in a headline stating, "Guns don't kill people- the mentally ill do."
She quotes a statistic without reference: "31-61% of all homicides committed by disturbed individuals occur during their first psychotic episode."
She is essentially suggesting that we incarcerate people before they have been diagnosed; however, it is not easy to tell in advance.
Ms. Coulter bought into that misperception that "mental illness equals criminal intent."
Changes in Attitude about Mental Illness
2013: Associated Press added a section in their book about mental illness
This encouraged other journalists to cover these issues fairly and accurately.
Still have a way to go
Celebrities are opening up about their own personal struggles and recovery with mental illness
Boston Globe wrote, "Could Celebrities Stories Destigmatize Mental Illness for the Masses?"
Big stars were named, such as Adele, Kanye West, and Selena Gomez.
Selena Gomez, at an American Music Awards, stated, "I was absolutely broken inside... if you are broken, you don't have to stay broken." This implored her fans to seek treatment if needed
Social media have been mostly positive in regards to celebrities' stories and their mental health care
2016: Boston Globe cited a Harris poll indicating that younger adults (ages 18-25) report a more accepting view on mental health care than adults.
Social media(Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.) also has a dark side; studies documented that social media use promotes distorted body self-image (a component of eating disorders).
On the other hand, some web-based interactive services have shown to be effective in helping to treat certain mental illness, especially anxiety disorders.