ArticleCanadian journal of psychiatry. Revue canadienne de psychiatrie2017
Good News? A Longitudinal Analysis of Newspaper Portrayals of Mental Illness in Canada 2005 to 2015.
Article in Canadian journal of psychiatry. Revue canadienne de psychiatrie, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
25 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Reducing Stigma in Media Professionals: Is there Room for Improvement? Results from a Systematic Review.Canadian journal of psychiatry. Revue canadienne de psychiatrie · 2017Pooled it
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- Analyzing Themes, Sentiments, and Coping Strategies Regarding Online News Coverage of Depression in Hong Kong: Mixed Methods Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Article
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- Social Representation of Mental Health Disorders in the Italian Big Brother VIP Edition.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
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- Newspaper depiction of mental illness in Nigeria.Journal of public health in Africa · 2023Article
- Spanish media coverage of youth mental health issues during the COVID-19 pandemic.BMC psychiatry · 2023Article
- Canadian news media coverage of suicide during the COVID-19 pandemic.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2023Article
- Media Coverage of Pedophilia and Its Impact on Help-Seeking Persons with Pedophilia in Germany-A Focus Group Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Portrayals of narcolepsy from 1980 to 2020: a descriptive analysis of stigmatizing content in newspaper articles.Journal of clinical sleep medicine : JCSM : official publication of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine · 2022Article
- Media coverage of Canadian Veterans, with a focus on post traumatic stress disorder and suicide.BMC psychiatry · 2022Article
- Does Online Newsmedia Portrayal of Substance Use and Persons with Substance Misuse Endorse Stigma? A Qualitative Study from India.International journal of mental health and addiction · 2022Article
- Relationships between types of UK national newspapers, illness classification, and stigmatising coverage of mental disorders.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2021Article
- Improvement for most, but not all: changes in newspaper coverage of mental illness from 2008 to 2019 in England.Epidemiology and psychiatric sciences · 2020Article
- Can participatory video reduce mental illness stigma? Results from a Canadian action-research study of feasibility and impact.BMC psychiatry · 2020Article
- Suicide Mortality in Canada after the Death of Robin Williams, in the Context of High-Fidelity to Suicide Reporting Guidelines in the Canadian Media.Canadian journal of psychiatry. Revue canadienne de psychiatrie · 2019Article
- Workplace Antistigma Programs at the Mental Health Commission of Canada: Part 1. Processes and Projects.Canadian journal of psychiatry. Revue canadienne de psychiatrie · 2019Article
- The Potential of Specialized Media in Public Health: Analysis of Health-Related Content in Sports Newspapers.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2019Observational
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesThe overarching aim of this article is to assess media portrayals of mental illness in Canada. We hypothesise that portrayals have improved over time, related to the various antistigma activities of organisations such as the Mental Health Commission of Canada (MHCC). Specific objectives are to assess 1) overall tone and content of newspaper articles, 2) change over time, and 3) variables associated with positive or negative content.
methodsWe collected newspaper articles from print and online editions of over 20 best-selling Canadian newspapers from 2005 to 2015 ( N = 24,570) that mentioned key search terms such as mental illness or schizophrenia. These were read by research assistants, who assessed tone and content for each article using preassigned codes and categories. Data were subjected to chi-squared and trend analysis.
resultsOver the study period, 21% of the articles had a positive tone and 28% had stigmatising content. Trend analysis suggested significantly improved coverage over 11 years ( P < 0.001). For example, articles with a positive tone had almost doubled from 2005 (18.9%) to 2015 (34.8%), and articles with stigmatising content had reduced by a third (22.3% vs 32.7%). Analysis also suggested that articles on the front page, as well as articles in broadsheet newspapers, had significantly more positive coverage.
conclusionsThe study indicates that news media coverage related to mental illness has improved over the past decade. This may be related to the concerted efforts of the MHCC, which has executed a targeted strategy aimed at reducing stigma and improving media coverage since 2007.
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