1. A Critical Perspective on Mental Health News in Six European Countries : How Are 'Mental Health/Illness' and 'Mental Health Literacy' Rhetorically Constructed?
- Author
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Claudi L H Bockting, Alexis Dewaele, Theodoros Giovazolias, Mattias Desmet, Gunnel Hensing, Simon Øverland, Dewi Hannon, Konstantinos Kafetsios, Malin Axelsson, Ntani Spyridoula, Ann Buysse, Kris Rutten, Sofia Triliva, Reitske Meganck, Laura Van Beveren, Viktor Schønning, Ine De Neve, Joke Vandamme, Adult Psychiatry, ANS - Mood, Anxiety, Psychosis, Stress & Sleep, APH - Mental Health, APH - Personalized Medicine, and APH - Digital Health
- Subjects
Europe (Sweden ,SEEKING ,Social Sciences ,Europe (Sweden, Norway, Belgium, The Netherlands, Cyprus, Greece) ,Newspaper ,Belgium ,discursive theory ,mental healthmental health literacy ,Research Articles ,media_common ,Greece) ,Norway ,mental health literacy ,Mental Disorders ,Public Health, Global Health, Social Medicine and Epidemiology ,mental illness ,COVERAGE ,Europe ,PSYCHIATRY ,Public Health ,Psychology ,Social psychology ,mental health ,medicine.medical_specialty ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Empathy ,ILLNESS ,Europe (Sweden Norway Belgium The Netherlands Cyprus Greece) ,biocommunicability ,Situated ,medicine ,Humans ,Mental health literacy ,Health communication ,Public health ,Environmental and Occupational Health ,media ,STIGMA ,Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health ,The Netherlands ,Mental illness ,medicine.disease ,Mental health ,Health Literacy ,PATHOLOGY ,Folkhälsovetenskap, global hälsa, socialmedicin och epidemiologi ,Attitude ,Cyprus ,qualitative ,rhetorical analysis - Abstract
In this study, we aim to contribute to the field of critical health communication research by examining how notions of mental health and illness are discursively constructed in newspapers and magazines in six European countries and how these constructions relate to specific understandings of mental health literacy. Using the method of cluster-agon analysis, we identified four terminological clusters in our data, in which mental health/illness is conceptualized as “dangerous,” “a matter of lifestyle,” “a unique story and experience,” and “socially situated.” We furthermore found that we cannot unambiguously assume that biopsychiatric discourses or discourses aimed at empathy and understanding are either exclusively stigmatizing or exclusively empowering and normalizing. We consequently call for a critical conception of mental health literacy arguing that all mental health news socializes its audience in specific understandings of and attitudes toward mental health (knowledge) and that discourses on mental health/illness can work differently in varying contexts. publishedVersion
- Published
- 2020