Mental Illness In The Media Analysis

The media in American society has a major influential impact on the minds and beliefs of millions of people. Whether through the news, television shows, or film, the media acts as a huge database for knowledge and instruction. It is both an auditory and visual database that can press images and ideas into people's minds. Even if the individual has no prior exposure or knowledge to something, the media can project into people's minds and leave a lasting impression. Though obviously people are aware of what they are listening to or watching, thoughts and assumptions can drift into their minds without even realizing it. These thoughts that drift in are extremely influential. The massive impact it

When the phrase “mental illness” is spoken, the immediate thought that pops into the individual’s mind is the extremes such as Schizophrenia, or Bipolar Disorder. However, the majority of mental disorders fall into the spectrum of quite common disorders such as Depression, Anxiety, or Obsessive Compulsion Disorder (OCD). Why should the first thing that people think of be negative? What makes people think this way? Society has a negative view of mental illness because of media portrayal, the attitudes of individuals, and skepticism, and the novel, The Catcher in the Rye, makes a connection to these views of the world.

The media in American society has a major influential impact on the minds and beliefs of millions of people. Whether through the news, television shows, or film, the media acts as a huge database for knowledge and instruction. It is both an auditory and visual database that can press images and ideas into people's minds. Even if the individual has no prior exposure or knowledge to something, the media can project into people's minds and leave a lasting impression. Though obviously people are aware of what they are listening to or watching, thoughts and assumptions can drift into their minds without even realizing it. These thoughts that drift in are extremely influential. The massive impact

It is easy for an audience to be manipulated by the media. The portrayal of an issue like mental illness is totally vulnerable to misrepresentation. Depending on who is writing and their viewpoint, it does not take much to make this issue sympathetic or demonized. If the author of a given piece wants his or her audience to demonize something, the author might use the word "isolation”. If that same author wants a sympathetic response he might use the word "loneliness”. As far as the New York Times is concerned, they opted for a stereotypical portrayal. It is true that Lanza is indeed a mass murdered, but must the story fit the profile now that the deed is done? Apparently, for the New York Times, it must.Accoring to Margaret Price, she is making the same point of how the media represent disabilities. She says the accounts that the media "inflect public myths about mental disability, race, class, nationality and gender ..."

1. My research question was “How are representations of mental illness inaccurate and potentially harmful?”. I chose this research question because I am interested in psychology and was interested to look into how the media portrays mental illness.

The movie “The Roommate,” revolves around a young girl named Sarah (Minka Kelly) who is starting her freshman year of college. Little does she know that she has a roommate that is diagnosed with numerous mental disorders that she is not treating by taking her medication. When they are initially acquainted as roommates, Sara comes across as being innocent and depicts very normal behavior. However, as soon as Rebecca and Sarah become closer to each other, Rebecca forms an obsession with Sara and strange events begin to occur. Each of Sarah’s close friends or allies becomes hurt, and even killed. As soon as Sara discovers the symptoms of her mental illness, she becomes extremely

Dramatic stories of people with mental health conditions appear pervasively in almost every media outlet, beginning generations ago, and continuing steadily in modern society. These themes--of violent madmen, hysterical witches, insane criminals, and every other generalization of the mentally ill--perpetuate the harmful misrepresentation and stigmatization of mental illness, which is a common element in modern everyday life. One of the greatest factors contributing to this situation today is the presence of said misconceptions in printed media--not just modern works, but also the appraised classics, such as William Shakespeare’s tragedy Macbeth and Mary Shelley’s gothic novel Frankenstein. Even as centuries pass and contemporary society advances, it is evident that ultimately, as the reader analyzes both Macbeth and Frankenstein, definitive British literature strengthens the negative stigma surrounding mental health, as it similarly misrepresents the legitimate issues regarding mental illness.

The media, which consists of television, radio and the newspaper, is referred to as a form of communication. It is thought as the most powerful tool of communication due to the fact that it is able to present information at any time either promoting it in a positive or negative light. The media is also known for presenting fake news, however due to the fact that they are communicating to the masses the majority of news is believed if from a ‘reliable’ source. Newspaper companies such as ‘The Sun’ and ‘The Daily Mail’ pay extortionate prices in order to obtain front page stories from paparazzi so they can publish them in their papers resulting more profit for the companies as more individuals buy the papers. The media are able to shape the

“A good story catches public attention either by focusing on conflict and controversy or by raising issues of public safety—all perspectives that may place journalists in direct conflict with mental health advocates. News media, particularly newspapers, are among the most frequently identified sources of mental health information. This gives them great scope to dispel inaccurate and stigmatizing stereotypes perpetuated in the entertainment media or to reinforce and amplify them. Results show that news representations of mental illness […] are largely inaccurate and negative. Reporters emphasize the violent, delusional and irrational behavior of people with a mental illness, and often sensationalise headlines or story content in order to attract attention .”

In a study conducted by Otto F. Wahl of George Mason University it was concluded that the portrayal of the mentally ill was extremely inaccurate when compared to what mental illness experts uphold.“ … early studies, for example , compared media depictions with the opinion of mental health experts and concluded that ‘ in general , the causes, symptoms, methods of treatment, prognosis, and social effects portrayed by the media are far removed from what the experts advocate.” This shows without the help of experts in character development the mentally ill are seriously misrepresented. Another study conducted by Donald L. Diefenbach and Mark D. West of the University of North Carolina at Asheville to see how television influenced attitudes towards mental illness concluded much to the same. “The study found that the view of mental illness expressed by the mass media was even further removed from health professionals than that of the lay public. “ Once again we see that the lack of professional guidance in the media leads to the flawed depiction of the mentally

“The media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power. Because they control the minds of the masses”("Malcolm X Quote").Malcolm X explains how the media has become a source of control and fountain of manipulation to the mind. Like Malcolm X, many researchers believe that the media has a heavy influence on an individual's state of mental health and that the representation of media encourages negativity and violence. Media negatively affects an individual's mental health by encouraging violence, destroying self-esteem, and creating high anxiety when it comes to face-to-face communication.

In the last decade, mental illness has become a growing topic of exploration and study. Most times most aspiring writers even professionals write mental illness with personal prejudices and a lack of education. They fill viewers with inaccurate portrayals and a romanticization of an extremely misunderstood condition, even by science. Often writers and the audience make the grave mistake into thinking a depressed person can’t possibly laugh or have fun, and if they do, they are truly not depressed. Below, we dispel unhealthy myths like the latter and give you a list of advice and pointers from a published author and psychiatric clinical nurse on how to educationally write the topic of mental illness into fiction.

I think politicians should really be focused on making sure people know that mental illness is a serious condition that is affecting so many people in our country that we do not even know about. They should be promoting ways to get help for those who are struggling with these illnesses. Yes I think something should be done about the connection of mental illness and gun violence but putting those people on a national registry for limits on weapons could seriously backfire big time. Putting people on a list based on an illness is a type of discrimination and I am sure many others would feel the same way and I am sure there would be protests and things of that nature because of it. And if there was to be a list only the major disorders should

In most cases, people who are portrayed with mental illnesses are commonly exhibited as being violent and/or aggressive, but are also frequently depicted as eccentrics, seductresses (in the case of women), self-obsessives, objects for scientific observation, simpletons and/or failures. One or more of these such labels can reasonably be applied to the characters examined in both The Beauty Queen of Leenane and The Holy City... As such, a skewed, and ultimately rather unsavoury, picture of mental illness is often presented to the public. There is plenty of evidence that these pervasive negative portrayals can have harmful effects, particularly effects they might incur through perpetuating the stigma associated with mental illness as well as potentially reducing the likelihood that those with mental illness will seek out the appropriate help. In April 2005, a psychological review put together by Jane Pirkis, R Warwick Blood, Catherine Francis and Kerry McCallum examined the effect of fictional portrayals of mental illness. They made reference to studies that have employed surveys and focus groups to examine the sources of community attitudes towards mental illness, having found that the media in general are perceived as the root of such

Mass media has a stranglehold on our society and it is uncomfortable to think about just what it effects and whether it is good or harmful. The tools that helped me to gain a better understanding of how much the social media and technology package, influences our decisions, social changes and even our buying habits were very subtle. The articles chosen for this class aided in a deeper understanding of just how we use mass media and how it in turn uses us. It seemed simple to start with, the choice of free will, or to tune out mass media seems easy, however the 48-hour experiment was a wake up call as it brought up many emotional issues for many people. The response that is elicited from listening to a specific type of music, the advertisements we are subjected to and the overall poor social message that mass media plays a part in is overwhelming. When given the opportunity to examine how lasting these effects can be we see a part of ourselves that we have become so unaware of that it is not even a separate entity. Our social response to the news, the world events, current events, and local news, has become a doctored version or ideal of what the mass media corporations would like you to react to. The 48 hour experiment proposed by Dr. Kadi shed some much needed light on how seriously advertising affects our mental and social health. Mental health problems are at an all time high and I believe one of major contributing factors is the exposure to mass media.