In this content analysis of television, the portrayal of persons with mental disorders was highly correlated with the portrayal of violent crime. The mentally ill were found to be nearly 10 times more violent than the general population of television characters, and 10 to 20 times more violent (during a two week sample) than the mentally ill in the U.S. population (over the course of an entire year). The mentally ill on television were also judged to have a negative impact on society and a negative quality of life. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

A television content analysis and survey of 419 community respondents supports the hypothesis that media stereotypes affect public attitudes toward mental health issues. A content analysis of network, prime-time television demonstrates that portrayals are violent, false, and negative. The mentally disordered are portrayed as 10 times more likely to be a violent criminal than nonmentally disordered television characters. A survey demonstrates that as television viewing increases so does the belief among viewers that locating mental health services in residential neighborhoods will endanger the residents. Viewers who watch television news are less likely to support living next to someone who is mentally ill. The survey also tests the third-person effect, and finds that viewers believe television portrayals of mental illness affect others more than themselves. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.We learn a lot from television. Some of these lessons are positive (Abelman, 1985;Brown & Cody, 1991;Rosenkoetter, 1999), but many lessons embedded in the content of television are potentially negative. Television has perpetuated many stereotypes throughout its history, including unrealistic portrayals of racial groups (Dixon & Linz, 2002;Rada, 2001;Reid, 1979) and gender roles (Coltrane & Adams, 1997;Glascock, 2001;Scharrer, 2001). Networks are now, arguably, more sensitive to these criticisms than in decades past, but there are still areas of concern to scholars and critics. An area of analysis addressed in the current research is the portrayal of mental health issues on television.The present research explores the cultivation of television viewers' attitudes toward mental health issues and tests the third-person effect. Cultivation analysis uses content A R T I C L ECorrespondence to: Donald L. Diefenbach, Department of Mass Communication, One University Heights, CPO # 2120, Asheville, NC 28804. E-mail: ddiefenb@unca.edu analysis of television to generate hypotheses about viewer attitudes and beliefs, which are tested with a community survey. Originally designed to study the impact of television violence on viewers (Gerbner & Gross, 1976), cultivation analysis has expanded in scope to explore other areas as diverse as marriage (Segrin & Nabi, 2002), the paranormal (Sparks, Nelson, & Campbell, 1997), and compulsive buying (Kwak, Zinkhan, & Dominick, 2002). Davidson (1983) found that research participants were likely to attribute more media influence to others than to themselves. He coined the term third-person effect, which has been applied to a number of media issues, including pornography (Lo & Wei, 2002), music lyrics (McLeod, Eveland, & Nathanson, 1997), and television violence (Hoffner & Buchanan, 2002;Salwen & Depagne, 2001). The third-person effect has been demonstrated to be particularly prevalent for issues and effects that are considered socially undesirable, such as stereotyping (Duck, Hogg, & Terry, 1999). The present research tests this effect for portrayals of mental illness on television. LITERATURE REVIEW Content...

This study analyzed the content of popular press articles on lobotomy between the years 1935 and 1960. Both a qualitative and quantitative analysis provided evidence that the press initially used uncritical and sensational reporting styles, with the content of articles on lobotomy becoming increasingly negative through time. The initial positive bias occurred despite opposing views in the medical community, which provided a basis for more balanced coverage. These findings support the theory that biased reporting in popular press articles may have been a factor influencing the quick and widespread adoption of lobotomy as a psychiatric treatment.

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