MEDIA + MENTAL HEALTH

THE STIGMA OF MENTAL ILLNESS

The media contributes to mental illness stigma through exaggerated, inaccurate, and comical images used to portray people with psychiatric disorders, and by spreading incorrect information about mental illness. It shapes our ideas and understanding of various issues and events, and mass media has the ability to alter perception and sway popular opinion of large number of people. The negative and imprecise portrayals of mental health issues reinforce mistaken beliefs and myths about mental illness, and these misconceptions are worsened by exaggerating unusual behaviours expressed by those who are mentally ill.

A greater awareness of these consequences and reporting of issues relating to mental illness can contribute to a decrease of suicide rates and stigma/discrimination associated with mental illness.

THE CULTIVATION THEORY

This theory states that those who spend more time in the virtual world of television may perceive the real world with the same imagery, principles, and portrayals depicted in the media.

THE SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY

This theory suggests that learning is achieved not only through direct experience but also through observation. For example, when watching television, people can gain knowledge about behaviours and social conventions. When an individual lacks the actual experience of being with a person with mental illness, they turn towards the media for perceptions. However, various areas of media portray people with mental illness as violent, murderous, or unpredictable through exaggerations and misrepresentations of reality. This results in a belief that the general population of people with mental illnesses and disorders are uncontrollable, dangerous, and should be feared or avoided.

REPRESENTATION OF PSYCHIATRIC DISORDERS

Distortion of images
Gender bias
Discrimination of women
Women: overrepresented with problems and models of sexual dysfunction, neuroses, etc
Men: overrepresented as having serious mental illnesses
Distortion of images of professionals and healthcare services
Distortion of the causes of mental disorders and their treatments

EFFECT OF MEDIA ON CHILDREN AND TEENS

Due to factors such as immaturity and inability, it makes it difficult for a child to distinguish fantasy from reality. This can cause significant impairments in understanding stories, poor peer behaviour (including aggression and gang involvement), and a decline towards an unhealthy lifestyle. Time spent with media decreases the amount of time available for pursuing other healthier activities (sports, physical activity, community service, cultural pursuits, and family time), and can result in social isolation. Social isolation can lead children to turn towards the media for entertainment, companionship, and as a means to escape the stresses of their lives. Violent television viewing may also influence children to be more antisocial, be more attracted to violent media, and become more used to thinking about violence. This is because violence in television promotes aggressive behaviour in children who are less likely to believe that aggression/violence are wrong, as well as the acceptability of behaving aggressively and desensitizes them to thinking about violence.

REPORTING MENTAL ILLNESS

Good media reports about mental illness are responsible, accurate and balanced. They help the community in understanding the experience of mental illness by including the perspective of people with mental illness, carers, and mental health workers, and encouraging help-seeking behaviour.

Important points:

Humanizing mental illness
Emphasize that mental illness is real, common, and treatable.
Emphasize the impact that mental illness has on family members, friends, and carers.
Offering hope to persons with mental disorders
Highlight stories about the successful management of mental illness by interviewing recovered patients and their carers. At the same time, raise awareness about the challenges associated with managing a long-term mental illness.
Encouraging people with mental illness to seek help
Emphasize the importance of early recognition and treatment of mental illness. Lay stress on the fact that mental illness like most other diseases is amenable to treatment. Raise awareness about mental health services and encourage people in distress not to delay seeking help.
Give accurate information about psychiatric disorders
Provide correct information about psychiatric disorders from reliable resource persons, and highlight the complexity of psychiatric disorders. It should be emphasized that mental illness covers a wide range of symptoms, conditions, and effects on people's lives, but most of them improve with treatment.
Every effort should be made by people working in the media to use appropriate language and terminology. Negative terms, such as "mental patient," "nutter," "lunatic," "psycho," "schizo" and "mental institution," should be avoided as they stigmatize mental illness and conserves discrimination. Avoid using colloquialisms in place of accurate terminology for treatments of mental illness as they downplay the illness and its treatment and may discourage others from continuing treatment.

UNDERSTANDING THE POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF SOCIAL MEDIA

As long as we are mindful users, using social media as a part of our everyday routine may not be a problem and could be beneficial. Social media may provide individuals with a platform that overcomes the barriers of distance and time, which allows them to connect and reconnect with other. This helps expand and strengthen in-person networks and interactions.

Benefits and harms associated with social media use vary across demographic, socioeconomic, and racial population sub-groups. These benefits were generally associated with younger age, better education, and being white. The harms were associated with older age, less education, and being a racial minority. These findings are consistent with the work on communication inequalities and health disparities.

Education, income, race, and ethnicity influence a person's access to and ability to act on health information from media.