News Media Framing of Serious Mental Illness and Gun Violence in the United States, 1997-2012

Abstract

Recent mass shootings by persons seemingly afflicted with serious mental illness (SMI) have received extensive news media coverage and prompted national dialogue about the causes of, and policy responses to, mass shootings. News media framing of SMI as a cause of gun violence may influence public attitudes about persons with SMI and support for gun violence prevention proposals. We analyzed the content of a 25% random sample of news stories on SMI and gun violence published in 14 national and regional news sources from 1997 to 2012. Across the study period, most news coverage occurred in the wake of mass shootings, and "dangerous people" with SMI were more likely than "dangerous weapons" to be mentioned as a cause of gun violence.

Portraying mental illness and drug addiction as treatable health conditions: Effects of a randomized experiment on stigma and discrimination

“…The results of our study suggest that these news media portrayals e which often emphasize the abnormal behaviors (e.g. talking to oneself, withdrawing from family and work activities) that can accompany the onset of mental illness and drug addiction (McGinty et al, 2014;Olafsdottir, 2011;Wahl et al, 2002) e likely contribute to the widespread public stigma and discrimination toward these groups.…”

“…Studies analyzing the content of news and popular media have shown that the majority of individuals with mental illness and drug addiction depicted in the media exhibit deviant or abnormal behavior, in particular violent behavior related to the psychotic symptoms (e.g. hallucinations and delusions) often associated with untreated serious mental illnesses like schizophrenia (McGinty et al, 2014;Olafsdottir, 2011;Wahl, 1995Wahl, , 2003Wahl, , 1992Wahl et al, 2002Wahl et al, , 2003. In contrast, few news stories, television programs or movies portray individuals who undergo successful treatment for mental illness and addiction (Olafsdottir, 2011;Wahl, 1995Wahl, , 2003Wahl, , 1992Wahl et al, 2002Wahl et al, , 2003.…”

Misrepresentations of Lone Shooters: The Disparate Treatment of Muslim, African American, Hispanic, Asian, and White Perpetrators in the US News Media

“…Researchers also found that fifty-four percent of respondents who read a news story of a mass shooting thought persons with serious mental illness were likely to be dangerous, compared to 40% in the control group (Jarlenski & Barry, 2014). Based on the fact that the number of mass shootings in the U.S. have been White men, we hypothesize that mental illness will be found to occur more frequently with White shooters than shooters of color.…”

Effect of Name Change of Schizophrenia on Mass Media Between 1985 and 2013 in Japan: A Text Data Mining Analysis

“…[4][5][6][7] Such articles are published at a higher rate than that for physical illness. 8 Of these, schizophrenia and psychosis are focused on stigmatization from mass media articles, [9][10][11][12] and had the highest rate of negative contexts compared with other psychiatric diseases. 9,11 As schizophrenia is thought to be one of the most stigmatized diseases compared with physical and psychiatric diseases, more appropriate information along with positive and recovery-oriented impressions through mass media are mandatory to promote early detection and care for young people suffering from schizophrenia and psychosis.…”