REPORTING ISSUES

Issues to consider when reporting mental illness

Media reporting of mental health and mental illness in Australia is extensive. A media
monitoring study indicated that over 30,000 media items on mental illness were sourced from
Australian newspapers, radio and television news over a 12-month period.1

It is often a challenge for media professionals to report on mental health and mental illness.
These are complex issues to convey in a succinct manner with minimal research time when
considering the demanding pressures on journalists. It can also be a challenge to source people
with a mental illness and their family members for interview because of the potential
consequences for them to ‘go public’ about an issue that is still not well understood in the
community.

Some issues to consider when reporting on mental health and mental illness are provided below.

Before running a story:

• check for consistency with codes of practice that relate to discrimination, privacy, grief
and trauma (see Appendix 1);
• ensure you have access to the most reliable facts, statistics and other information;
• consult experts on mental illness and mental health care (see Contacts section or refer to
the website at www.mindframe-media.info).

Privacy

• Media guidelines and codes of ethics emphasise the right to privacy. Is it relevant to the
story that the featured person has a mental illness? What are the consequences for their
health, safety and livelihood if you disclose their mental illness? Very often people with a
mental illness do not inform employers, colleagues, neighbours and friends of their
condition for fear of isolation, loss of employment and persecution from others.
• Should a person’s mental illness be mentioned in the headline or lead?
• Who are your sources? Consider whether the information you have received, from a
neighbour for example, is accurate? Has an assumption been made about someone’s
mental health status?
• Does the story exaggerate a person’s illness or the affect mental illness has on their
behaviour?
Language and stereotypes

• Most people working in the media are conscious about using appropriate language. While
improvements have been made, some negative terms such as ‘mental patient’, ‘nutter’,
‘lunatic’, ‘psycho’, ‘schizo’ and ‘mental institution’ are still in use. This language
stigmatises mental illness and perpetuates discrimination.
• Have you provided balance to the story? Remember that people with a mental illness are
not inherently violent, unable to work, unpredictable, untrustworthy, weak or unable to
get well. Mental illness is not a
• life sentence and most people are able to recover with treatment and support.
• Referring to someone with a mental illness as a ‘victim’, ‘suffering with’ or ‘afflicted by’
a mental illness is outdated. Avoid language that implies people are their mental illness.
For example, a person is not ‘a schizophrenic’, they have a diagnosis of, currently
experience, or are being treated for schizophrenia.
• The term mental illness covers a wide range of symptoms, conditions, and effects on
people’s lives. Be careful not to imply that all mental illnesses are the same.
• Make sure medical terms are used correctly. A person who is down or unhappy is not the
same as someone experiencing clinical depression.
• Using psychiatric and medical terminology out of context is inaccurate, such as
‘psychotic dog’ or ‘schizophrenic city’.
• Avoid using colloquialisms in place of accurate terminology for treatments of mental
illness, such as ‘happy pills’ for antidepressants and ‘shrinks’ to refer to psychiatrists or
psychologists. Treatment of mental illness is challenging for people and casual language
can undermine people’s willingness to seek or continue accessing it.
• Be aware of differences in language and communication style for Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander and culturally and linguistically diverse populations.
• Aboriginal communities refer to mental health and illness as related to their social and
emotional wellbeing. Remember that no one person can speak for all Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander people.
• A story would benefit by canvassing both expert comment and the opinions of the local
community.
• Terms used for a range of mental illnesses and their treatments may not exist or translate
easily when interviewing people from a culturally and linguistically diverse population.

Interviewing a person with a past or current mental illness

Interviewing a person with a past or current mental illness requires particular sensitivity and
discretion. While many people who have, or have had, a mental illness are happy to speak to the
media, talking
publicly about a deeply personal issue can be difficult and distressing. You are likely to get a
better interview if you are able to help them be more at ease. Follow media codes of conduct on
appropriate
interviewing.

• Is the person genuinely prepared to be interviewed? Negotiating the location where the
interview takes place and whether the person wants to have a friend or associate present
may help them to be more comfortable. An advocacy organisation may also be able to
help to source and support the person through the interview process.
• Do not identify the person by name in the story unless they have given permission.
Identifying the individual and their mental disorder could be detrimental if they do not
wish to disclose their illness.
• Seek agreement beforehand on the use of photos and video, and whether the person will
be identified.
• It is likely to help the person to speak about their personal experience if they have had a
chance to consider the questions before the interview. Most people are anxious before an
interview with the media.
• Wherever possible, use the person’s own words to represent their experiences. If the
person has a different view of their illness to family or doctors, try to include the person’s
understanding of their experience.
• If material is likely to be shared with other media outlets, let the interviewees know so
they are not taken by surprise when their story appears in other contexts.
• Let the person know about likely editing processes your story goes through before it is
published or broadcast. If you intend to emphasise a particular angle, tell the person.

Include helpline numbers

• Encourage people to seek help by adding information about available supports, including
helpline numbers, local services and websites.
• Ensure that the helpline, service or website you refer to is relevant to the story. If the
story about a specific illness (e.g. depression) or a specific population group (e.g. young
people) choose information that is most relevant. Refer to the Contacts section or the
Mindframe website for advice.
• If adding a helpline or service specifically, try to let them know when the story is run so
they can better respond to a spike in calls generated by your report.
Seek expert advice

New information about mental disorders, symptoms, and treatments is becoming available all the
time. Media reports on mental illness should be based on the most reliable information from
recommended
experts (see the Contacts section).

Photo selection and placement

Ensure the person understands how a photo or footage will be used. Check they are prepared to
be identified in the story this way.

The impact of media reporting:

• Negative reporting of mental illness appears to influence community attitudes.

• The presentation of negative images of mental illness in both fiction and non-fiction
media results in the development of more negative and inaccurate beliefs about mental
illness.
• The presentation of positive images does not appear to balance negative media portrayals.

For more on the evidence on the impact of media reporting, see Section 1.

The 2006-2007 Media Monitoring Study2 found that:

• 5.8% of items on mental illness used language that was negative or outdated;
• 10.6% of items stigmatized mental illness;
• 16.2% of items labelled the person by his or her diagnosis rather than focusing on the
person first;
• 6.8 % of headlines were highly dramatic or sensationalised; nearly one third of stories
disclosed that a particular person had a mental illness and identified the person by name;
• only 19.8% of stories provided information on help services available.

See Section 2 for more detail.

Media professionals can help improve understanding and community attitudes towards
mental illness by:

• providing accurate information about mental illness and specific mental disorders;
• encouraging people in distress to seek help, for instance by providing helpline numbers;
• breaking down myths about mental illness and allowing people who have experienced
mental illness to tell their own stories.
MEDIA REPORTING OF MENTAL
ILLNESS
KEY RESEARCH OUTCOMES FROM 2002 TO 2006:
A comprehensive review of the international literature related to media reporting of mental
health and illness was conducted in 20011. Since that time there has been continued international
interest in the area. The following is a brief summary of key research outcomes from 2002 to
2006.

• Respondents to a South African survey of people affected by schizophrenia felt a high degree
of stigmatisation and agreed they felt discriminated against. Those with higher qualifications
felt the media had a negative influence on perceptions of mental illness.2

• A study in the UK3 looking at newspaper representations of mental illness discussed

‘framing’ as a way that health movements can challenge dominant conceptions and thus
policies to change a phenomenon from a personal issues to a public issue.

• A German study found students who read a negative article about mental illness expressed
more negative attitudes toward people with mental illness. Also the researchers noted a trend
toward an increased desire for social distance among students with a higher TV consumption.
4

• Another German study investigated the relationship between media consumption and desired
social distance towards people with a mental illness using a representative population
sample. The researchers found that stories of people living well with mental disorders should
become more commonplace in media reports as they can have positive effects on readers’
attitudes towards that population.5

• Some New Zealand researchers reviewed newspaper items over a period of time and found
only 5 out of 600 covering mental illness or mental health were written in the first person or
from a journalist’s interview with somebody living with mental illness. The authors argued
that these speakers offered qualitatively different depictions of mental illness in newspapers
and the journalist’s presented them as credible sources.6

• A study by well-known Australian researchers reviewed a number of media items from

different media over a 12-month period. Findings indicated that depression is portrayed in the
Australian media more frequently than other forms of mental illness.7
• Another review in this area provides substantial information about the extent and
characteristics of media portrayal of mental health/illness in the Australian non-fiction media.
In particular this study found that media reporting of mental health/illness was extensive,
generally of good quality and focused less on themes of crime and violence than the authors
expected. The authors did note, however, that there were opportunities for improvement in
some media reporting.8

1
Francis, C., Pirkis, J., Dunt, D. and Blood, R.W. (2001). Mental Health and Illness in the
Media: A Review of the Literature, Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing,
Canberra.
2
Botha, UA, Koen, L & Niehaus, DJH (2006). Perceptions of a South African schizophrenia
population with regards to community attitudes towards their illness, Social Psychology and
Psychiatric Epidemiology, 41, 619-623.
3
Paterson, B. (2006). Newspaper representations of mental illness and the impact of the reporting
of events on social policy: the ‘framing’ of Isabel Schwarz and Jonathan Zito, Journal of
Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, 13, 294-300.
4
Dietrich, S, Heider, D, Matschinger, H, Angermeyer, MC (2006). Influence of newspaper
reporting on adolescents’ attitudes toward people with mental illness, Social Psychology and
Psychiatric Epidemiology, 41, 318-322.
5
Angermeyer, MC, Dietrich, S, Pott, D & Matschinger, H (2005). Media consumption and desire
for social distance towards people with schizophrenia, European Psychiatry, 20, 246-250.
6
Nairn, RG & Coverdale, JH (2005). People never see us living well: an appraisal of the personal
stories about mental illness in prospective print media sample, Australian and New Zealand

Journal of Psychiatry, 39, 281-287.

7
Francis, C, Pirkis, J, Blood, RW, Dunt, D, Borley, B & Stewart, A (2005). Portrayal of
Depression and other mental illnesses in Australian nonfiction media, Journal of Community
Psychology, 33, (3), 283-297.
8
Francis, c, Pirkis, J, Blood, RW, Dunt, D, Burgess, P, Morley, B, Stewart, A & Putnis, P (2004).
The portrayal of mental health and illness in Australian non-fiction media, Australian and New

Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 38, 541-546.