The portrayal of mental health in Australian daily newspapers

Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health
Stephanie KenezPranee Liamputtong

Abstract

To examine how mental health is portrayed as a holistic construct in three major Australian daily newspapers. Using an unobtrusive, mixed methods approach incorporating content and thematic analyses, data were collected from hard copies of The Age, The Australian and Herald Sun newspapers and their weekend counterparts over 12 weeks in 2012. Newspaper coverage of mental health favoured stories about illness over wellbeing. While the issue was typically reported responsibly, psychotic disorders were overrepresented in discussions of illness and were often discussed in relation to deviance. Our analysis suggested that positive mental health messages are commonly presented, particularly in tabloid coverage, which appears to place greater emphasis on wellbeing. However, improvements in the representation of psychotic disorders appear to be less progressive than other disorders. This suggests mental health professionals and organisations need to continue building relationships with and providing education to journalists to ensure responsible representations continue to dominate. This study provides an updated and holistic examination of the media's portrayal of mental health within the Australian context. As this is the first study ...Continue Reading

References

Oct 1, 1995·Australian Journal of Public Health·D Lupton
Sep 13, 2002·The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry·John CoverdaleDonna Claasen
May 6, 2005·Psychiatric Services : a Journal of the American Psychiatric Association·Patrick W CorriganLaura L Hall
Mar 17, 2007·Journal of Health Communication·Natalie B SlopenPatrick W Corrigan
May 15, 2009·The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry·Connie HensonIan Hickie

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Citations

Jul 4, 2016·Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health·Soufiane BoufousVictoria Montgomery
Aug 16, 2016·Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health·Jannine Bailey, Timothy McCrossin
Jan 7, 2021·Psychology Research and Behavior Management·Monica ZolezziWarda Obaidi
Dec 29, 2020·Health Communication·Alina Pavlova, Pauwke Berkers
Sep 8, 2021·Health Promotion Journal of Australia : Official Journal of Australian Association of Health Promotion Professionals·Anna M RossNicola J Reavley
Nov 3, 2021·Global Health Promotion·Liliana Hidalgo-PadillaFrancisco Diez-Canseco

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