The news and entertainment media provide information and images that are distorted and dramatic about mental illness. Through such portrayals, the audience believes that people with mental disorders are unpredictable, have criminal intentions, and are dangerous (Srivastava et al., 2018). Further, as Srivastava et al. (2018) argue, the media also models adverse reactions towards mentally ill individuals, including ridicule, mockery, and fear. Based on that, the mentally ill are stigmatized through exaggerated, comical, and inaccurate information portrayed them. In other words, the mentally ill are portrayed as individuals with psychiatric disorders, and the information about their conditions is incorrect. Based on cultivation theory, spending more time in the virtual world makes people who consume content in this world assume that what happens in the real world is untrue (Srivastava et al., 2018). Therefore, due to the absence of experience with people with mental disorders, the media portrays the mentally ill as murderous, violent, and unpredictable (Srivastava et al., 2018). Further, mentally ill people are to blame for their health conditions, which is entirely untrue and a gross misinterpretation of reality.
Mental health advocates blame the media for its role in promoting discrimination and stigma against the mentally ill, mainly due to the understanding that the information presented is untrue. The portrayals are inaccurate since mental disorders do not necessarily lead to violence, unpredictability, or murderous intentions. Moreover, mental disorders do not mean the mentally ill are to blame for their conditions. On the contrary, most people with mental health issues are no more likely to cause violence than anyone else; therefore, they are predictable and do not have murderous intentions. Further, being mentally ill is no one’s fault or that of the people surrounding them.
Reference
Srivastava, K., Chaudhury, S., Bhat, P. S., & Mujawar, S. (2018). Media and mental health. Industrial psychiatry journal, 27(1), 1–5.