The Role of the Media In Ending Discrimination and Building Social Inclusion

Abstract:

Background:  Mental illnesses constitute some of the most serious, unrecognized, underreported health problems around the world; however, mental health issues remain shrouded in myth or mystery, perpetuating stigma and discouraging people from seeking help.  Stigma of people with mental illnesses is pervasive in all populations.  It is especially prevalent in vulnerable populations that are subjected to health disparities.  Unfortunately, the role of the media in sensationalizing and perpetuating inaccuracies about mental illnesses is well documented.  Media depictions are especially problematic when they imply that people with mental illnesses are more violent than the general population, cannot be treated effectively, or constitute a negligible fraction of the population.  Over the past decade, mental health advocates have responded to this failure in communication by developing initiatives to educate journalists on accurately and sensitively depicting mental illnesses.

Program background: This presentation will highlight one of these initiatives: the Carter Center’s Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism.  The fellowship program was launched in 1996 to increase accurate depictions of mental illness, thereby reducing stigma and discrimination by increasing public awareness.  The fellowship program provides training and stipends to professional journalists to study and report on mental health topics they propose.  This is done in order to develop a cadre of better-informed journalists working across a variety of media forms that reach diverse and widespread audiences.  They also work to report more accurate information and influence their peers to do the same.  To date, 126 fellows have been awarded in the program’s 17-year history, and almost 1400 mental health pieces by Rosalynn Carter Fellows completed during or after their fellowship year have appeared in the press on four continents.

Evaluation Methods and Results: Two cases will be presented and discussed involving investigative journalists from the U.S. newspapers The Oregonian and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.  One investigative journalist was a Fellow of the Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism program.  The other investigative team was non-Fellowship related but responsible for launching a wide-scale, multi-year reform process in the State of Georgia in which the U.S. Department of Justice and the Carter Center Mental Health Program, along with state advocates, continue to work to implement the requirements of a federal lawsuit against the State of Georgia that was initiated as a direct result of the investigative reporting by journalists from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Conclusions:  This talk will shift the usual discussion of the problems with media depictions to focus on the powerful, positive role that a well-informed media can play in exposing failures of mental health systems to reform and provide services and supports to people with serious mental illnesses in the least restrictive environments within the community. 

Implications for research and/or practice: This discussion is critical now as the focus of the mental health field turns to reducing stigma and discrimination through policies and practices that encourage social inclusion.  Investigative journalists particularly can bring attention to discriminatory practices, abuses of power, and lack of adequate funding to properly reform.