Portrayal of Mental Illness in Canadian Newspapers
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| Authors/collaborators |
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| Title |
Portrayal of Mental Illness in Canadian Newspapers
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| Abstract |
The authors report their results from a content analysis of 103 newspaper articles taken from eight major English-language Canadian newspapers, including the Montreal Star and The Gazette, and selected at random from the Canadian Newspaper Index. They explain that the portrayal of mental illness and mentally ill persons in these reports was compared with that in samples of articles taken from two comparison mental health publications not receiving popular circulation. The authors found that as compared with these latter publications, the content analysis indicated that the newspapers portrayed mental illness and the mentally ill in a manner which could be described as essentially pejorative, thus seeming to support frequent observations and complaints from the mental health establishment about inadequate or unfair coverage of mental illness in the popular print media. At the same time, the authors note, the newspaper medium appeared to present more favourable images of nontraditional (example: community-based) mental health practices, than of traditional (example: hospital-based) practices. Implications of such results for the attitudes and beliefs of the general public vis-à-vis mental illness are offered, with special reference to the influence of the print media.
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| Publication |
The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry
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| Volume |
Vol. 31
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| Issue |
no. 9
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| Pages |
813-817
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| Date |
December 1, 1986
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| Language |
en
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| Citation |
Day, David M., and Stewart Page. “Portrayal of Mental Illness in Canadian Newspapers.” The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry Vol. 31, no. 9 (December 1, 1986): 813–817.
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