Representing Schizophrenia In The Media

"This book presents a critical analysis of ways in which schizophrenia and people with schizophrenia are represented in the press. Interrogating a 15 million-word corpus of news articles published by nine UK national newspapers over a 15-year period, the author draws on techniques from corpus linguistics and critical discourse analysis to identify the most frequent and salient linguistic features used by journalists to influence and reflect broader public attitudes towards people with schizophrenia. In doing so this book: - Evaluates the extent to which media representations are accurate and the extent to which they are potentially helpful or harmful towards people living with schizophrenia; - Employs a bottom-up approach guided by linguistic patterns, such as collocates and keywords, identified by corpus software; - Contributes to the de-stigmatization of schizophrenic disorder by unveiling some of the widespread misconceptions surrounding it; - Applies a mixed-methods approach in order to expose attitudes and beliefs found 'between the lines' - values and assumptions which are often implicit in the way language is used and therefore not visible to the naked eye. The findings of this monograph will be relevant to advanced students and researchers of health communication, corpus linguistics and applied linguistics and will also carry importance for journalists and mental health practitioners"--

This book presents a critical analysis of ways in which schizophrenia and people with schizophrenia are represented in the press. Interrogating a 15-million-word corpus of news articles published by nine UK national newspapers over a 15-year period, the author draws on techniques from corpus linguistics and critical discourse analysis to identify the most frequent and salient linguistic features used by journalists to influence and reflect broader public attitudes towards people with schizophrenia. In doing so this book: Evaluates the extent to which media representations are accurate and the extent to which they are potentially helpful or harmful towards people living with schizophrenia; Employs a bottom-up approach guided by linguistic patterns, such as collocates and keywords, identified by corpus software; Contributes to the de-stigmatisation of schizophrenic disorder by unveiling some of the widespread misconceptions surrounding it; Applies a mixed-methods approach in order to expose attitudes and beliefs found ‘between the lines’ – values and assumptions which are often implicit in the way language is used and therefore not visible to the naked eye. The findings of this monograph will be relevant to advanced students and researchers of health communication, corpus linguistics and applied linguistics and will also carry importance for journalists and mental health practitioners.

Estimates indicate that as many as 1 in 4 Americans will experience a mental health problem or will misuse alcohol or drugs in their lifetimes. These disorders are among the most highly stigmatized health conditions in the United States, and they remain barriers to full participation in society in areas as basic as education, housing, and employment. Improving the lives of people with mental health and substance abuse disorders has been a priority in the United States for more than 50 years. The Community Mental Health Act of 1963 is considered a major turning point in America's efforts to improve behavioral healthcare. It ushered in an era of optimism and hope and laid the groundwork for the consumer movement and new models of recovery. The consumer movement gave voice to people with mental and substance use disorders and brought their perspectives and experience into national discussions about mental health. However over the same 50-year period, positive change in American public attitudes and beliefs about mental and substance use disorders has lagged behind these advances. Stigma is a complex social phenomenon based on a relationship between an attribute and a stereotype that assigns undesirable labels, qualities, and behaviors to a person with that attribute. Labeled individuals are then socially devalued, which leads to inequality and discrimination. This report contributes to national efforts to understand and change attitudes, beliefs and behaviors that can lead to stigma and discrimination. Changing stigma in a lasting way will require coordinated efforts, which are based on the best possible evidence, supported at the national level with multiyear funding, and planned and implemented by an effective coalition of representative stakeholders. Ending Discrimination Against People with Mental and Substance Use Disorders: The Evidence for Stigma Change explores stigma and discrimination faced by individuals with mental or substance use disorders and recommends effective strategies for reducing stigma and encouraging people to seek treatment and other supportive services. It offers a set of conclusions and recommendations about successful stigma change strategies and the research needed to inform and evaluate these efforts in the United States.

When we think about the "pictures in our heads" that media create and perpetuate, what images are we truly referencing? Issues of media stereotypes and representation (both past and present) are crucial to advancing media literacy. Media Stereotypes: From Ageism to Xenophobia becomes one-stop shopping for synthesizing what we know within the composite of stereotyping research in the United States. Utilizing a cast of top American scholars with deep roots in asking stereotype-based questions, this book is essential reading for those wishing to understand what we know about past and present media representations as well as those wishing to take the baton and continue to advance media stereotyping research in the future.

Communicating Mental Health: History, Contexts, and Perspectives explores mental health through the lens of the communication discipline. In the first section, contributors describe the major contributions of the communication discipline as it pertains to a broader perspective and stigma of mental health. In the second section, contributors investigate mental health through various narrative perspectives. In the third and fourth sections, contributors consider many applied contexts such as media, education, and family. At the conclusion, contributors discuss the ways in which future inquiries regarding mental health in the communication discipline can be investigated. Scholars of health communication, mental health, psychology, history, and sociology will find this volume particularly useful.

Whether in movies, cartoons, commercials, or even fast food marketing, psychology and mental illness remain pervasive in popular culture. In this collection of new essays, scholars from a range of fields explore representations of mental illness and disabilities across various media of popular culture. Contributors address how forms of psychiatric disorder have been addressed in film, on stage, and in literature, how popular culture genres are utilized to communicate often confusing and conflicted relationships with the mentally ill, and how popular cultures around the world reflect mental illness and disability. Analyses of sources as disparate as the Batman films, Broadway musicals and Nigerian home movies reveal how definitions of mental illness, mental health, and of psychology itself intersect with discourses on race, gender, law, capitalism, and globalization. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.

From Psycho, Silence of the Lambs, Kojak, and Melrose Place, from books, music, cartoons, advertising, and newspapers, we all derive our images of mental illness. These omnipresent media portrayals are at the least insensitive, inaccurate, and unfavorable and at the worst stigmatizing and pernicious. In this important book, Dr. Otto Wahl examines the prevalence, nature, and impact of such depictions, using numerous examples from film, television, and print media. He documents the remarkable frequency of these images and demonstrates how the media has stereotyped the mentally ill through exaggeration, misunderstanding, ridicule, and disrespect. Media Madness also shows the damaging consequences of such stereotypes - stigma, rejection, loss of self-esteem, reluctance to seek, accept, or reveal psychiatric treatment, discrimination, and restriction of opportunity. The forces that shape current images of mental illness are clarified, as are the efforts of organizations and individuals to combat such exploitation.