Of the total, 32% did not specify a diagnosis, so were removed from further analysis, leaving 5142 articles. There was a significant decrease in the stigmatising elements ‘danger to others,’ (OR 0.57 (0.43–0.75), p p p There was a statistically significant decrease in all stigmatising elements except for ‘sceptical of seriousness’ and ‘problem for others’ between 2008 and 2019. Stigmatising articles accounted for 46% of the coded articles published in 2008, 35% in 2016 and 23% in 2019. The researcher coding the 2019 sample (RH) coded a sample of 92 articles from 2014 to derive the kappa value; this allowed him/her to discuss his/her results with the previous coder (CA) who had used the same sample. All researchers were trained using articles from 2008 coded by the codebook developer and then coded another sample to derive the kappa value.
Videos portraying individuals’ experiences with mental health and suicide appeared to be the most impactful given the statistical significance resulting from their evaluations (Livingston et al., 2013, 2014; McTernan et al., 2023). Two studies did not find any significant impacts due to the cultural irrelevance of the campaign (Choi et al., 2016) and the current mental health status of the participants (Halsall et al., 2019). Also reported were significant improvements in help-seeking skills, willingness to accept help, and attitudes around help-seeking, though one study found significant less changes in help-seeking attitudes among African American students compared to students of all other racial groups (Cheng et al., 2020; Craig Rushing et al., 2021; Thompson et al., 2021). With regards to help-seeking, evaluations reported an increase in individuals’ ability and intent to help others dealing with mental health issues and suicidal thoughts (La Sala et al., 2021; Livingston et al., 2014).
This systematic review explored the characteristics and impacts of media mental health campaigns directed toward young people. A study examining suicide counts in a region found no significant change in suicide counts before and after the mental health campaign (Côté et al., 2021). To be included, we required that studies evaluated an existing media mental health campaign and included results specific to young people aged years. The timeframe was grounded based on the introduction of Facebook, one of the most popular social media platforms. To address this gap, the purpose of this systematic review is to explore the impacts of existing media mental health awareness campaigns directed toward young people.
The Impact of Social Media & Technology on Child and Adolescent Mental Health
However, while newspapers still play a significant role in shaping national attitudes towards mental illness, this influence has declined since this study started in 2008 as more people use social media as a source of news and information. Whatever the national differences in media coverage are, the study underlines the challenge that all efforts to achieve a more positive attitude towards people with mental illness in the public, such as anti-stigma campaigns, face in the industrialised world. While mass media often further cements stereotypes and stigmas among the public, social media platforms like YouTube can be a place for online users to discuss the culture of discrimination and prejudice surrounding mental health and advocate for change. We found an increase in the proportion of anti-stigmatising articles on mental illness from, 2008–2014 but this was not statistically significant; no reduction in the proportion of stigmatising articles; and fewer articles coded as mixed or neutral (Rhydderch et al., Reference Rhydderch, Krooupa, Shefer, Goulden, Williams, Thornicroft, Rose, Thornicroft and Henderson2016).
- In recent years, there has been a shift towards more positive and accurate representation of mental health in the media.
- A federal bellwether trial beginning in June in Oakland, California, will be the first to represent school districts that have sued social media platforms over harms to children.
- Since 2008 England’s anti-stigma programme Time to Change has lobbied media outlets about stigmatising coverage and worked with them to promote accurate and non-stigmatising coverage.
- If an article had a stigmatising element present, but this was overshadowed by anti-stigmatising elements, the article was only coded with the anti-stigmatising elements.
- To mitigate potential risks, experts recommend balancing screen time with real-world interactions by encouraging face-to-face communication and physical activities that support social and cognitive development.
The dataset of newspaper articles and the coding dataset are available upon reasonable request. Current interventions may not be helping all people with mental illness equally, so it will be essential to assess knowledge, attitudes and behaviours relating to different diagnoses. However, further insight into the details of, for example, the variation in the stigmatising or anti-stigmatising elements was not possible in this dataset, as the sample did not have the power to support such a granular analysis. The public may have had more access to positive stories about mental illness via the internet, often relating to recovery or treatment of mental illness, which may then affect their perceptions and the views of traditional journalists (Betton et al., 2015; Carmichael et al., 2019; González-Sanguino et al., 2019).
Social Media’s Double-Edged Role
We explore the secret world of cults through a psychological lens to try to understand how cults lure people in. Is it possible that some people are more vulnerable to conspiracy theories? Do certain personality traits mean some people are hard wired to be ‘punctually challenged’? If you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter, called “The Essential List”. “I really wish that I could say ‘I think it will be OK, we’ve got it covered’, but I do think there are going to be some lasting effects for some people,” she says. After the Boston Marathon bombings, coverage often appeared alongside urgent, sensationalising text such as “new details” and “brand new images of marathon bombs”.
The number of articles on mental health care was similar for all three countries in the random 4 https://anchor.fm/s/7cef2f50/podcast/rss months. Only one article related to mental health care issues was covered on the front page of the Los Angeles Times, and this was about health insurance being proposed to include mental illness. A total of 118 articles related to mental health issues were identified in the six investigated broadsheets over 4 months. The articles were coded as positive, negative or neutral towards mental health. The impression, however, that UK media take a more negative stance towards mental health care issues than media in other countries has not been substantiated by empirical research yet.