A modified framework for identifying stigma: News coverage of persons with mental illness killed by police.

Abstract

This paper examines the types of stigmatizing language and frames present in news reports about persons with mental illness killed by police. A sample of 301 online news reports was content analyzed, of which 132 reports contributed to 231 examples of stigmatizing language or frames. Analysis indicates that the construction of stigma in these news reports does not fully adhere to existing frameworks for identifying stigmatization. Stigmatization that is implicit, and often seemingly innocuous, is almost three times as common in the analyzed news reports than overt and explicit forms of stigmatization. A modified framework for identifying stigmatization is proposed that includes the presence of stigmatizing syntax, implicit stereotypes, stigmatizing myths, and behavior labeling. To the author's knowledge, this study is the first to examine media stigmatization of persons with mental illness killed by police as well as explore stigmatization regarding suicide by cop. Implications of the findings for eÄorts to destigmatize mental illness are explored.

Stigma and nonsuicidal self-injury: Application of a conceptual framework.

“…A fruitful starting point may be to investigate the types of messages that are conveyed about self-injury at a broad societal level, given that stereotypes are socially learned scripts that inform prejudice and discrimination (Corrigan, 2000). Mass media can be a vehicle for the communication of stereotypes (Frankham, 2019) and present an important avenue for investigating messaging about NSSI. Exploring how NSSI is portrayed by news and other popular media may give important insights into the development of public NSSI stigma.…”

Police, ambulance and psychiatric co-response versus usual care for mental health and suicide emergency callouts: A quasi-experimental study

“…In New Zealand, the number of individuals seen for mental health care grew by approximately 40% in the years between 2010/2011 and 2019/2020, putting the health system under considerable pressure (Elliott, 2017;Office of the Health and Disability Commissioner, 2018;Patterson et al, 2018). He Ara Oranga, the 2018 Mental Health and Addiction Inquiry Report commissioned by the New Perhaps as a result of this pressure on health services, mental health-related calls to emergency services have also seen steep increases, in line with international trends (Frankham, 2019). This is when police or ambulance services are contacted through an emergency number such as 911 or 000 (111 in New Zealand) to respond urgently to a mental health crisis.…”

The Influence of Social Support and Characteristics of the Stigmatisers on Stigmatising Attitudes Towards People With Mental Illness

“…Furthermore, at the level of exemplars, research has shown that the type of presentation (in terms of framing as well as the exemplars' characteristics) influences (de-)stigmatising effects in the context of exemplification (e.g., Baer et al, 2015;Frankham, 2019;Gwarjanski & Parrott, 2018;McGinty et al, 2014;Wahl, 1996;Wright et al, 2012). For example, Gwarjanski & Parrott (2018) found that the media holds stigma frames (i.e., the communication of stereotypes) as well as stigma-challenge frames (i.e., the contradiction of stereotypes) about schizophrenia.…”

“…However, it still mostly portrays mental illness in a negative fashion and maintains the public's overall negative view on mental illness through the overuse and generalisation of labels, such as depression, to the facilitation of stereotypes (e.g., violent and suicidal: Wang, 2020), and negative framing. In addition, it continues to use pejorative language in association with mental illness (e.g., Baer et al, 2015;Gwarjanski & Parrott, 2018;McGinty et al, 2014;Frankham, 2019).…”