Evaluation of the StigmaWatch program’s impact on media portrayals of suicide and mental illness
StigmaWatch promotes responsible media reporting of mental ill-health and suicide. Almost half of the breaches were changed to be less stigmatising after being notified by StigmaWatch.
Context
SANE Australia’s StigmaWatch program promotes responsible reporting of mental-ill health and suicide in the Australian media by monitoring media reporting and contacting media professionals about portrayals that breach the Mindframe guidelines.
An evaluation of StigmaWatch found that over half of published media items submitted to the program over four years contained stigmatising or inaccurate content.
Research and findings
Researchers examined 1,300 reports of harmful or stigmatising portrayals of mental illness and suicide in the media, of which had been lodged to StigmaWatch between 2017 and 2021.
The reports were compared against a set of communications principles listed in the Mindframe media guidelines and classified as having complied with or not complied with the recommendations listed. They were then categorised further into types of non-compliance.
Of the 1,300 reports submitted to StigmaWatch:
- 54% did not meet the recommendations of the Mindframe guidelines
- 44% of the reports were modified following contact by StigmaWatch to the media producer encouraging non-stigmatising portrayal
- 70% of the reports that did not meet the recommendations of the Mindframe guidelines were pertaining to suicide
- 29% of the reports that did not meet the recommendations of the Mindframe guidelines were in relation to mental illness
- Schizophrenia was found to be the most common mental illness found in reports that did not meet the recommendations of the Mindframe guidelines.
Implications
Further research is recommended to explore how to best liaise with media professionals to ensure that stigmatising media outputs are amended according to Mindframe guidelines. It is also recommended to further investigate how to improve the knowledge and skills of media professionals to abstain from the inclusion of stigmatising portrayals of mental illness and suicide within media outputs.