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The social construction of depression in news stories: An exploratory study

Depression is the topic of this exploratory study that examined whether and how news content stigmatises the mentally ill. In their 16-month examination of depression coverage in the US, the authors found that violence and suicide were mentioned in the majority of stories, which may promote stigma. While the mentally ill were not necessarily denigrated with specific labels such as crazy or nutty, individuals did appear to shoulder the blame for their illnesses with very few attributions of blame aimed at community, society or culture. Solutions to mental illness were more likely be framed as prescription medicines rather than counselling therapy, thus supporting the interests of pharmaceutical companies.

Keywords: Antidepressant, constructionism, content analysis, depression, deviance, frame, framing, mass media, mental illness, news, newspapers, pharmaceutical, stigma