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academies
17
th
International Conference on
4
th
International Conference on
NEUROLOGY AND NEUROSCIENCE
&
MENTAL HEALTH AND PRIMARY CARE
October 16-18, 2017 | Toronto, Canada
J Neurol Neurorehabil Res 2017 | Volume 2 Issue 3
Representation of mental health in the media: Educating our youth about the messages to which they
are exposed
Anne T M Konkle
University of Ottawa, Canada
T
he stigma associated with mental illnesses can be
debilitating to individuals with these conditions. The
public stigma results from the social endorsement of
stereotypes about these conditions which can perpetuate
the self-stigma of their internalization. The media is an
important source of information about mental health; we
see images on TV shows and movies, we hear about it in
songs, we read about it in newspapers or news websites
but perhaps as important, in our current technological age,
is the information being presented on social media sites
such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr, to name
a few. The information being presented via all these media
may be accurate or not, but may also present the mental
health condition in a negative light, with negative tone or
connotation, thus informing public perceptions and further
perpetuating the stereotypes. We have been investigating
the depiction of several mental health conditions in various
media. This work has been conducted with University
Students in the Faculty of Health Sciences, in order to help
sensitize them to how their perceptions may be influenced
by information presented via a variety of media sources. I
will present some data pertaining to the representation
mental health conditions in a mixture of media and speak
to the educational opportunity this has presented to our
youth undertaking this work. By researching media types,
students become more aware of sources of information to
which they are exposed on a daily basis. Students found that
information is constantly being fed to us, even when it is not
sought out, via advertisements in all types of media. There
is often a disconnection between the media representation
and the scientific literature. Educating our youth about the
information to which they are exposed is a positive step
toward ending the stigma surrounding mental health.
Speaker Biography
Anne T M Konkle is an Assistant Professor in the Interdisciplinary School of Health
Sciences at the University of Ottawa since 2009. She is interested in sex differences
in brain development, behavior and disorder/disease. A multidisciplinary approach
finds her investigating the media representation of mental health in order to better
understand the information typically available to the lay person and how these might
impact their perceptions and behaviors. With a focus on youth, she is attempting to
help them understand mental health first is by helping to sensitize them to how their
perceptions may be influenced by information presented via a variety of media sources
and and secondly, to formulate an educational program that would allow students,
from a young age, to be critical of the information to which they are exposed, especially
as it pertains to mental health.
e:
Anne.Konkle@uOttawa.ca