Legal proceedings, media, and mental illness - IJCACJ 38(4) (original) (raw)
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Contesting the text: Canadian media depictions of the conflation of mental illness and criminality
Sociology of Health & Illness, 2002
Researchers have identified that portrayals of mentally ill people as violent and criminal are among the most common depictions of mental illness in the popular media (Nunnally 1961, Wahl and Roth 1982, Day and Page 1986). Little attention, however, has been paid to assessing the textual strategies whereby such representations gain currency. This research is interested in investigating the reporting techniques utilised by the popular press including the ways in which power, knowledge and ideology articulates in and through media reports about mental illness. This study draws on Foucault (1972) and van Dijk (1998), to assess data generated out of a discourse analysis of 195 articles from two major Canadian newspapers over the past decade (1990–1999). Findings suggest that the linkages between criminality and mental illness are achieved through the use of ideological, polarised talk that creates distinctions between Us and Them, as well as through a hierarchy of mental illness. Within the hierarchy of illness, three portrayals are explored including the mentally ill criminal, the passive patient and class based illness depiction. A major finding reveals that, throughout the various representations, a central reporting feature is of mentally ill people as simultaneously rational and irrational. Furthermore, varying degrees of agency are afforded mentally ill subjects on class lines, which has implications for the substantiation of responsibility and blame.
The changing face of newspaper representations of the mentally ill
Journal of Mental Health, 2013
"Background: Negative stereotypes presented in the media may contribute to the stigma associated with mental illness. People’s attitudes towards the mentally ill are initially influenced and subsequently maintained in part by the frequent media presentation of negative stereotypes of mental illness. This could result in social rejection of individuals with mental illnesses. Aim: To explore how four main UK national newspapers reported on mental health/mental illness stories over a 10-year period. Method: This study utilised content analysis to identify words, themes and trends of representation related to the mentally ill in articles from the four newspapers. Results: The findings indicated that there was an increase in the number of articles related to mental health/illness over the time of the study. The rate of increase was far greater than that for the increase in the total number of articles carried in the press over this time period. It was also identified that pejorative terms were used, in a number of the articles, to describe the mentally ill person. Conclusion: Many of the newspaper reports highlighted the need for protection of the general public from the mentally ill, and that the mentally ill were in some way different to the general public. In par- ticular, both the words “violence” and “drugs” were linked to mental health/mental illness in these articles."
2022
We analysed how psychologists in the media approached a recent case of mass murder “attempt” by a university student. Contrary to previous media studies focused on the relationship be-tween crime and mental health, we do not take for granted the scientificity of psychology in order to understand how its trembling epistemic status affects its public discourse. The case was one of the first happening in Europe during the COVID-19 crisis, an event that is known for its impacts on mental health. Using Foucault’s genealogical-archaeo-logical method we found that there was a prominent level of speculation that, dangerously, linked mental illness with criminal behaviour, especially when there was a lack of information about the student and his intentions. The pandemic context constituted a renewed opportunity for experts to talk about ‘collective mental illness’ in alarming terms. Interestingly, the experts presented naïve versions of the “magic bullet theory” to explain the power that media have on subjects with mental illness who engage in criminal behaviour. We also found that specialists proposed hypotheses that cannot be disproven, creating a dogmatic sense of a fearful inescapability from mental illness that can lead to criminal behaviour.
Newspaper coverage of mental illness in the UK, 1992-2008
BMC Public Health, 2011
Background: Recent years have seen a number of attempts to reduce the stigma related to mental illness; the media can play a significant role in perpetuating this stigma. This paper analyses trends in newspaper coverage of mental illness in the UK between 1992-2008 across a range of psychiatric diagnoses.
Purpose The 'chivalry hypothesis' posits that woman are treated more compassionately by the media when compared with men. To our knowledge, no research study has explored the chivalry hypothesis as applied to people with mental illness. As such, we set out to compare three types of newspaper articles, those that focus on (1) mental illness generically; (2) a woman with mental illness; and (3) a man with mental illness. Methods We conducted a content analysis of 1,168 newspaper articles relating to mental health over 6 months. We obtained articles through media retrieval software using various search terms. We read and coded articles for the presence or absence of themes and content. Frequency counts and proportions were generated for each theme, which were compared across the three types of articles using Chi-square tests. Results Generic articles were more positive than articles about individuals. They were significantly more likely to quote mental health experts, and have recovery, inadequate resources, and etiology as themes. Articles that depicted men were significantly more likely to have stigmatizing content and violence as themes. Articles depicting women were significantly more likely to quote mental health experts, discuss mental health interventions, and have recovery and inadequate resources as themes. Conclusion The findings lend some support to the chivalry hypothesis, in as much as articles about women were significantly more positive. Articles about men were significantly more negative, though this may be partially accounted for by elevated rates of violent crime in men. Generic articles were the most extensively well informed.
Newspaper coverage of a violent assault by a mentally ill person
Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, 2004
The media is an important source of public information on mental ill-health. A man with a serious psychiatric illness attacked a minister with a knife at a Remembrance Sunday service in a remote, rural part of the Highlands, inflicting a severe facial wound. We aimed to identify lessons for the National Health Service (NHS) from the media coverage of the incident and of a subsequent court case and NHS Highland inquiry and in addition to explore how newspaper reporters approached reporting such incidents. We searched local and regional, national Scottish, and the Scottish editions of three UK newspapers for relevant coverage. We also conducted structured telephone interviews with eight reporters who had attended the inquiry press conference. Most of the media coverage was associated with the assault and the court case, rather than the inquiry results. Only three of 10 inquiry recommendations were mentioned in any reports. Coverage largely dealt with identified shortfalls, rather than proposed solutions. The NHS had made little comment in advance of the announcement of the inquiry results. Most of the newspaper coverage had already occurred. The NHS therefore limited its opportunity to influence newspaper coverage. The interpretation of the results is limited by the size of the study, but the coverage of such events forms part of the discourse on mental health in the media episodes and may have some affect on public perception of mental health issues. We conclude that, without providing confidential information, the NHS should take a more active stance in providing information on the nature and treatment of mental illness in such instances, even in advance of court cases.