Online Depictions of Mental Health: A Thematic Analysis of News Media Portrayals

Media depictions of mental health influence beliefs and attitudes towardsclinicians, services and people with mental health issues. Current researchlargely focuses on the media’s presentation of those with mental healthdifficulties. Focusing more broadly, we examined the content of two dominantNew Zealand online news media sources and investigated how mental health,services and stakeholders are presented in news media using thematic analysis.Four themes were developed that highlighted a focus on deficits in services,including lack of service capacity, inappropriate care and lack of governmentaction. The themes also related to the personal strengths and autonomy ofpeople with experience of mental health issues, the commonality of suchproblems and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health. Weargue that given the impact of news media depictions on help seeking, mediareports should acknowledge the positive work undertaken by services.