ISSN: 2222-6990
Open access
Media portrayal of mental illness may influence public stigma and service utilisation. Media, particularly the news media, has become omnipresent for mental illness information to the public. Most of the public's opinions and attitudes towards people with mental illness consume through the news media than direct experience. This study aims to explore prominent themes of news articles on mental illnesses in Malaysian online newspapers, which were collected from January 2017 to December 2021 using qualitative thematic analysis. Several keywords related to mental illness were used to seek news articles in the newspaper portals, and 86 news articles met the inclusion criteria. Results showed three significant themes identified - people with mental illness have undesirable traits, people with mental illness are a menace, and the risk factors of people with mental illness. Overall, the findings indicate that themes produced were stigmatising and derogatory towards individuals with mental illness by highlighting the negative characterisation of people with mental illness, naming them as a threat, and endangering others. These findings are essential for providing practical knowledge for media practitioners to report mental illness-related news. Therefore, this study suggested the need for improving the quality of mental illness media reporting in Malaysia.
Antebi, L., Carmichael, V., & Whitley, R. (2020). Assessing adherence to responsible reporting of suicide guidelines in the Canadian news media: A 1-year examination of day-to-day suicide coverage. The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 65(9), 621-629.
Baron, R. C., & Salzer, M. S. (2002). Accounting for unemployment among people with mental illness. Behavioral Sciences & the Law. 20. 585-599.
Brådvik, L. (2018). Suicide risk and mental disorders. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 15(9), 20-28.
Braun, V., and Clarke, V. (2006) Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77-101, https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa
Carmichael, V., Adamson, G., Sitter, K. C., & Whitley, R. (2019). Media coverage of mental illness: a comparison of citizen journalism vs. professional journalism portrayals. Journal of Mental Health, 28(5), 520-526.
Chen, M., & Lawrie, S. (2017). Newspaper depictions of mental and physical health. BJPsych Bulletin. 41(6), 308-313. https://doi.org/10.1192/pb.bp.116.054775
Farrelly, M. (2015). The Discursive Construction of Mental Health Problems in Irish Print News Media (Doctoral dissertation, Dublin City University).
Fong, C. L., Ibrahim, N., Rahman, N. A. A., Bartlett, S., Ping, N. Y., & Nordin, A. S. A. (2018). Media reporting of suicide in the era of “Malaysia Baru”. Malaysian Journal of Psychiatry, 27(1), 67-73.
Fong, Y. L. (2021). Reporting on suicide in Malaysia: Problem characterization and solution advocacy by media. KOME: An International Journal of Pure Communication Inquiry, 9(2), 46-64.
Hanafiah, A. N., & Van Bortel, T. (2015). A qualitative exploration of the perspectives of mental health professionals on stigma and discrimination of mental illness in Malaysia. International Journal of Mental Health Systems, 9(1), 1-12.
Harun, R. (2020). Mental illness is a treatable disease. New Straits Times Online. https://www.nst.com.my/opinion/columnists/2020/09/624035/mental-illness-treatable-disease
Hassan, M. F. bin, Hassan, N. M., Kassim, E. S., & Hamzah, M. I. (2018). Issues and challenges of mental health in Malaysia. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 8(12), 1685–1696.
Johari, M. A., Shukri, M. Z. M., Abd, M. A. S., Karim, M. H. H. I., Khazali, A. K., Nasarudin, A. A., and Razali, S. (2017). Perception of media in reporting suicide cases in Malaysia. Journal of Advanced Research in Social and Behavioural Sciences, 7(1), 59-67.
Kovacevic, R. (2021). Mental health: Lessons learned in 2020 for 2021 and forward. https://blogs.worldbank.org/health/mental-health-lessons-learned-2020-2021-and-forward
Ma, Z. (2017). How the media cover mental illnesses: A review. Health Education, 117(1), 90-109.
Mckeown, M., & Clancy, B. (1995). Media influence on societal perceptions of mental illness. Mental Health Nursing-London-Community Psychiatric Nurses Association, 15, 10-10.
Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Risk factor. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved February 18, 2024, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/risk%20factor
Mukhtar, F., & PS Oei, T. (2011). A review on the prevalence of depression in Malaysia. Current Psychiatry Reviews, 7(3), 234-238.
Nairn, R. G., & Coverdale, J. H. (2005). People never see us living well: An appraisal of the personal stories about mental illness in a prospective print media sample. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 39(4), 281-287.
Ng, Y. P., Pheh, K. S., Panirselvam, R. R., Chan, W. L., Lim, J. B. Y., Lim, J. T. Y., ... & Chan, L. F. (2021). Malaysian stakeholder perspectives on suicide-related reporting: findings from focus group discussions. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 673287.
Nor, N. F. M., Jeffree, N. B., & Nor, H. A. M. (2021). Health is wealth: A corpus-driven analysis of the portrayal of mental health in Malaysian English online newspapers. GEMA Online Journal of Language Studies, 21(2), 46-71.
Pendit, U. C., & Choo, K. A. (2020). Openness towards mental illness in Malaysia. e-BANGI Journal, 17(3), 46-56.
Razali, Z. A., Rabi'atul A., & Sanip, S. (2018). Mental illness portrayal in media: A content analysis of Malaysian newspapers. International Journal of Business and Society,19(S2), 324-331.
Ross, A. M., Morgan, A. J., Jorm, A. F., & Reavley, N. J. (2019). A systematic review of the impact of media reports of severe mental illness on stigma and discrimination, and interventions that aim to mitigate any adverse impact. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 54, 11-31.
Ross, A. M., Morgan, A. J., Wake, A., Jorm, A. F., & Reavley, N. J. (2022). Pilot trial of a media intervention with journalism students on news reporting of mental illness in the context of violence and crime. Health Promotion Journal of Australia, 33(3), 602-613.
Sanati, A. (2009). Does suicide always indicate a mental illness?. London Journal of Primary Care, 2(2), 93-94.
Srivastava, M., Jain, S., & Patel, A. (2018). Substance use among outdoor treatment-seeking patients with mental illness: A case–control study from a tertiary care hospital of Northern India. Journal of Education and Health Promotion, 7.
Stout, P. A., Villegas, J., & Jennings, N. A. (2004). Images of mental illness in the media: Identifying gaps in the research. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 30(3), 543-561.
Victor, J., Heng, J. G. K., Govindaraju, G. M., Ling, T. P., Rajaratnam, U. D., & Fong, Y. L. (2019). Media reporting of suicide: A comparative framing analysis of Malaysian newspapers. SEARCH Journal of Media and Communication Research, 11(2), 73-88.
We, C. H. (2012). Stigma: A Report On The 5th International Stigma Conference. https://www.mentalhealthcommission.ca/sites/default/files/Stigma_Opening_Minds_Together_Against_Stigma_ENG_0.pdf
Whitley, R., & Wang, J. (2017). Good news? A longitudinal analysis of newspaper portrayals of mental illness in Canada 2005 to 2015. The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 62(4), 278-285.
World Health Organization. (2020). World Mental Health Day: An opportunity to kick-start a massive scale-up in investment in mental health. https://www.who.int/news/item/27-08-2020-world-mental-health-day-an-opportunity-to-kick-start-a-massive-scale-up-in-investment-in-mental-health
World Health Organization. (?2012)?. Malaysia health system review. WHO Regional Office for the Western Pacific. https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/206911
(Ali et al., 2024)
Ali, S. M. M., Fakhruddin, W. F. W. W., Adnand, W. N. A. W., & Azizan, E. A. (2024). Portrayal of Mental Illness in Malaysian Newspapers: A Thematic Analysis of Online News Reports. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 14(2), 1843–1854.
Copyright: © 2024 The Author(s)
Published by HRMARS (www.hrmars.com)
This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this license may be seenavc at: http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode