The Effect of Media on the Stigma Towards Mental Illness

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The Effect of Media on the Stigma Towards Mental Illness
by Kim Harrison Stigma, as defined in Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, is a mark of shame or discredit or an identifying mark or characteristic.

“In 1986, the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) reported that stigma was the most debilitating handicap faced by former mental patients” (Granello & Pauley, 2000, p. 162). Though there are many sources associated with stigma against individuals with mental illness, I believe the media’s portrayal of the mentally ill significantly contributes to this stigma. I see this in my own work almost every day. I work as an emergency services psychiatric intake counselor for a hospital with a full range of psychiatric and chemical dependency services. The fears of the patients take many forms from worrying about their employer finding out about treatment to patients asking if getting treatment makes them “crazy”. The one thing that continues to amaze me is the number of patients that will ask me if being hospitalized is anything like the film “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”. I have had patients who were not even born when the movie was released ask me this. This just further supports my belief that the media’s impact on the stigma against the mentally ill is tremendous.

According to a study completed in 1990, a majority of American’s identified the mass media as their primary source for information on mental illness. This is of particular concern due to the inaccuracies and misinformation associated with electronic media’s portrayal of people with mental illness. In 1997 in the average American home, the television was on for 7 hours and 12 minutes per day. For these reasons, a study was conducted with college-aged individuals who reported the media as their primary source of information on mental illness. The study was designed to see if there was a relationship between their television viewing habi...