The Anxious Times

Abstract

Print media retains a significant role in shaping social discourses about mental health. Recent Australian studies have identified a significant social stigma and poor mental health literacy concerning anxiety disorders which prevents individuals from seeking help. No studies to date have explored the representation of anxiety in Australian print media. Targeting this research gap, our study explores models of disability present in 83 articles specifically covering anxiety disorders and published by The Australian newspaper between 2000 and 2015.Using a critical approach to content analysis, the analysis identified the presence of established traditional and progressive media models of disability. Our analysis also identified further supplementary discourses of awareness, nature and risk, thereby extending existing models identified by Clogston (1990) andHaller (2000). These discourses can be seen to both support and challenge traditional discourses of mental ill health according to the context in which the discussion of anxiety is presented. As this study reveals an ongoing potential for newspaper discussion of anxiety to increase stigma, it is important that students, journalists and editors (where necessary) work to challenge dominant discourses which promote traditional stigmatizing discourses of mental ill health.

Media Representations of Bipolar Disorder Through the Case of Suzy Favor Hamilton

“…While there were some positive perceptions, overall the analysis emphasized that open talk of mental illness in the media was rare. It also showed that when mental illness was discussed, it was often presented with negative connotations, a finding consistent with previous work on media representations of mental illness (Ma, 2017;Mellifont & Smith-Merry, 2015;Quintero Johnson & Riles, 2016). However, the representations of mental illness relied heavily on the type of article that was evaluated.…”

“…She often used words like "crazy" and "bizarre" to describe herself and others as well as the behaviors that are associated with mental illnesses. Use of these words was in agreement with common stigmatized beliefs about mentally ill individuals that were prevalent in the media and by doing so might have unintentionally reinforced these stereotypes (Anderson, 2003;Fauteux et al, 2008;Ma, 2017;McGinty et al, 2014;Mellifont & Smith-Merry, 2015;Quintero Johnson & Riles, 2016).…”

“…One key external factor that can exacerbate mental illness is the way that media covers it. Indeed, media representations of mental illness have arguably had the greatest influence on public opinions about mental health conditions and are considered one of the most prominent contributing factors to stigmatization of mental illness (Gibson & Gorczynski, 2019;Ma, 2017;Mellifont & Smith-Merry, 2015;Quintero Johnson & Riles, 2016). Research shows that the media is especially persuasive when the public does not have significant background knowledge of the specific group being discussed (McGinty, Webster, Jarlenski, & Barry, 2014).…”

“…Tabloid newspapers and otherwise unreliable sources were also equally as effective as factual stories in contributing to the mental health stigma (Anderson, 2003). In the mainstream media, individuals suffering from mental illness were most often portrayed as violent, crazy, dangerous, or as a threat to society and themselves (Anderson, 2003;Fauteux, McKelvie, & Man, 2008;Ma, 2017;McGinty et al, 2014;Mellifont & Smith-Merry, 2015;Quintero Johnson & Riles, 2016). Even though these were the most commonly occurring themes, these behaviors were inaccurate and rare in individuals suffering from mental illness (Ma, 2017;McGinty et al, 2014).…”

Representación de las personas con discapacidad en el Perú en las noticias de medios digitales periodísticos en el contexto del COVID-19

“…También es importante notar que algunas investigaciones han empezado a evaluar las representaciones de poblaciones específicas, como las personas con discapacidad mental y psicosocial (Guscinskiene & Zalkauskaite, 2011;Zalkauskaite, 2012;Mellifont & Smith-Merry, 2015), el colectivo de veteranos con discapacidad, a quienes se atribuye una figura heroica (Zboray & Zboray, 2019), los deportistas (Beacom et al, 2016: Martínez-Bello et al, 2021Meléndez-Labrador, 2021;Valsamidou et al, 2011), las personas autistas (Bie & Tang, 2014;Draaisma, 2009;Prochnow, 2014;Tang & Bie, 2016), los niños y niñas con discapacidad (McAndrew et al, 2020), y madres o padres con discapacidad (Fraser & Llewellyn, 2015).…”