OR personality disorder OR dissociative disorder OR anxiety disorder OR anxiety attack OR panic disorder OR panic attack OR obsessive compulsive disorder OR OCD OR post-traumatic stress OR PTSD OR social phobia OR agoraphobi! Newspaper articles from 2019 were retrieved on 24 randomly selected days using the Lexis Nexis database (Anderson et al., 2018). We ensured that there was a proportional representation of weekdays and weekend reports were included in the study, as per the data collection protocol used for previous data collection rounds. Depression is a frequently covered condition allowing comparison with schizophrenia and eating disorders. A content analysis approach using a structured coding framework was used to extract information from the articles. The newspapers were analysed by different trained research assistants for each year, though the same detailed codebook was used and agreement between coders was good .
A reckoning for social media and youth harms
Individuals also reported taking initiative to talk about mental health issues, share campaign content with friends and family, and learn more about the signs and symptoms of mental health issues (Craig Rushing et al., 2021; Livingston et al., 2013). Increased help-seeking behaviors were reported including increased primary health and mental health care visits (Booth et al., 2018), reaching out to others (Halsall et al., 2019), and increased hotline calls (Jenner et al., 2010). Two studies that utilized a randomized approach to measure the impact of a mental health campaign found direct effects on individuals in the intervention groups in terms of decline in mental health-related outcomes such as depressive moods, anxiety, stress and suicidal thoughts (Carli, 2016; Niederkrotenthaler & Till, 2020).
Through the Peaks and Valleys: Assessing and Addressing Suicide Risk in Bipolar Disorder
This article explores the complex relationship between digital media use and adolescent mental health, focusing on its neurobiological implications, particularly the role of dopaminergic reward pathways in reinforcing compulsive behaviors. Mental Health Podcast RSS Feed There are many examples of successful media campaigns that have promoted positive change and reduced mental health stigma. The media has the power to promote positive change and reduce mental health stigma. The media’s representation of mental illness can have a significant impact on mental health stigma.
Since different types of newspapers attract readers from different sectors of society, it is possible that differences in how mental illnesses are covered across these outlets can contribute to differences in levels of stigma in different demographic groups. For the coverage on mental illness, tabloid newspapers might report ‘harrowing stories’ with often ‘lurid accounts’ of health consequences to increase the emotional impact of the news , whilst broadsheet newspapers tend to focus more on the official report and policies of health promotion . Therefore, newspapers are an important resource to educate the public and capture the attention of policymakers on a variety of issues related to mental illness, such as its treatment and intervention, as well as its costs and impacts on society (e.g., violence, suicide) . Stigma is recognised as an important public health issue and a challenge for people with mental disorders globally .
- This was not clearly apparent for the period 2008–14, for which changes were not demonstrated consistently over the years studied (Rhydderch et al., Reference Rhydderch, Krooupa, Shefer, Goulden, Williams, Thornicroft, Rose, Thornicroft and Henderson2016).
- A systematic review and meta-analysis conducted in 2024 examined the impacts of digital social media detox on mental health outcomes.
- Depicting recovery is also essential, as many people experiencing a mental health condition want to know if they will ever feel better.
- For example, participation in online support communities has been found to provide mental health benefits, although the overall impact of digital media remains complex.
Understanding Media Representation
While it has been previously shown that stigmatising articles effect population attitudes towards mental illness (Thornton and Wahl, 1996; Corrigan et al., 2005, 2013; Klin and Lemish, 2008; Schomerus et al., 2016; Ross et al., 2019), it is possible that the causal pathway is not unidirectional. Figure 1c shows the pattern of this change and while eating disorders were discussed in a less stigmatising way than other diagnoses in 2008, this gap closed as coverage of other diagnoses improved. The results of the logistic regression models relating to changes in stigmatising and anti-stigmatising coverage over time are presented in Table 3. First, the proportions of articles containing the various elements, diagnoses and overall category (stigmatising, anti-stigmatising, neutral or mixed) were calculated and compared. The Lexis Nexis Professional UK electronic newspaper database was used to search articles from 18 local and national newspapers on two randomly chosen days each month which referred to mental illness. Anti-stigma programmes should continue to work with newspapers to improve coverage of mental illness.
