scholarly journals Loose talk: psychiatrists, the media and ethics

1997 ◽  
Vol 21 (9) ◽  
pp. 573-575
Author(s):  
Philip Timms
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Public Education ◽  
Royal College ◽  
Personal Communication ◽  
Ethical Concern ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Media ◽  
Efficient Machine ◽  
Tabloid Press ◽  
Main Complication

“Prince was far too stressed out to fly says royal shrink … Bungling Prince Charles was lashed by a top psychiatrist last night” (Airs, 1994). This colourful fragment from a national tabloid illustrates one of the less savoury aspects of the increasing visibility of psychiatry in the media. The College Public Education Committee (PEC) was established in 1988 and has monitored press references to the College. In the three years prior to its establishment, it was able to find only seven press references to the College. A more recent survey, from September 1992–1993, found 736 such references (D. Hart, Royal College of Psychiatrists, personal communication). This dramatic increase has been partly due to the increasing politicisation of health care in general. However, a significant role has been played by the PEC. It has established an efficient machine which not only disseminates information from the College to the media, but also responds to inquiries from the media. On the whole, the results of this sort of activity are beneficial, the main complication being that of misrepresentation. We tend to be painfully aware of the dubious practices of the media, in particular the iniquities of the tabloid press. However, we also need to consider the possible ethical blunders that we may commit. The whole enterprise of speaking or writing about psychiatry in the public arena has generated several areas of ethical concern.

scholarly journals Stigma 1, Psychiatrists 0

1999 ◽  
Vol 23 (7) ◽  
pp. 430-430 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoffrey Searle
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Public Education ◽  
Royal College ◽  
Mentally Ill ◽  
The Public ◽  
Education Campaign ◽  
Public Education Campaign ◽  
The Media

I think I can honestly say that I am a seasoned complainer, although I am careful not to attempt to be Mary Whitehouse and I do not assiduously scan the media looking for trouble. My interest in the area of stigmatization started with an episode of the TV drama Boon, where they suddenly had a character become ‘mentally ill’ so that he could conveniently shoot the hero to achieve a cliff-hanging end-of-series episode. Subsequently I specialised in the portrayal of mental illness in dramatic productions, joined the Public Education Campaign divisional network and had some media training. I have been listed as an expert in the portrayal of mental illness for five years but have never been approached for my advice on this area. However, following this year's announcement of the new Royal College of Psychiatrists' campaign ‘Changing Minds: Every Family in the Land’, I obtained all the names and addresses in Deborah Hart and Jill Phillipson's article above and stood ready to ‘do my bit’ for truth and honesty.

scholarly journals Climbing Mount Everest: tackling the media at a regional level

1998 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 111-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Harrison
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Public Education ◽  
Royal College ◽  
Regional Level ◽  
Health Issues ◽  
Mount Everest ◽  
Mental Health Issues ◽  
West Midlands ◽  
The Media ◽  
Wide Group

Regional Public Education Officers of the Royal College of Psychiatrists are strategically placed to influence and improve the coverage of mental health issues in the media. Their role needs to be enhanced and clarified, and a proposal is being put forward in the College to achieve this. One possible way of working locally is illustrated through the work of West Midlands Insight, which demonstrates the value of working with a wide group of people, including those who have experienced mental ill health.

Performing the ‘lifeworld’ in public education campaigns

2010 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 284-310 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle M. Lazar
Keyword(s):  
Public Education ◽  
Rap Music ◽  
Dual Processes ◽  
Public Performance ◽  
New Approach ◽  
The Public ◽  
Local Television ◽  
The Media ◽  
Education Campaigns ◽  
Real Person

In Singapore, top down public education campaigns have long been a mode of governance by which the conduct of citizens is constantly regulated. This article examines how in two fairly recent campaigns, a new approach to campaign communication is used that involves media interdiscursivity, viz., the mixing of discourses and genres in which the media constitute a significant element. The present approach involves the appropriation of a popular local television character, ‘Phua Chu Kang’, in order to address the public through educational rap music videos. Media interdiscursivity is based on an attempt to engage the public via a discourse of the ‘lifeworld’. The present article analyzes the ‘lifeworld’ discourse in terms of a combination of two processes, ‘informalization’ (the use of informal and conversational modes of address) and ‘communitization’ (the semiotic construction of a community of people). The dual processes are examined and discussed in relation to the choice of Phua Chu Kang as an ‘ordinary’ and almost ‘real’ person, including his informal register and speech style; his use of Singlish; and his construction of ‘community.’ The presence of Singlish, in particular, is interesting because (despite the official disdain for the language) it is included as part of PCK’s public performance of the lifeworld. The article concludes by considering this form of media interdiscursivity as the government’s shrewd way of achieving its social governance goals.

Become a Public Educator

2021 ◽  
pp. 233-240
Author(s):  
Dennis Meredith
Keyword(s):  
Public Education ◽  
Communication Skills ◽  
Information Needs ◽  
Federal Grants ◽  
Science Centers ◽  
The Public ◽  
Local Schools ◽  
Broader Impacts ◽  
The Media ◽  
Broader Impacts Criterion

Even though your prime duty is to your research, becoming a public educator can serve both one’s research and the information needs of the public. It also serves your field as a whole. Public education can mean teaching a science appreciation course, giving public lectures, registering with the institution’s speakers bureau, and advising the media on science and technology. Working with local schools, mentoring young people, and helping science centers create exhibits are also productive activities and bring professional benefits. These activities teach valuable communication skills, meet the Broader Impacts Criterion of federal grants, highlight one’s own department and institution, and bring you visibility.

A re-evaluation of teenage sunbed use following the introduction of banning legislation for under 18-year-olds

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 588-593
Author(s):  
S Menzies ◽  
S Daly ◽  
R O’Connor ◽  
A Kelly ◽  
M Fitzgerald ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Education ◽  
Cross Sectional Survey ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Multifaceted Approach ◽  
The Public ◽  
Awareness Campaigns ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Education And Awareness ◽  
The Media ◽  
Sunbed Use

Abstract Background There is little information on the effectiveness of introducing age restriction legislation alone to reduce the rate of sunbed usage by teenagers. Prior to the Public Health (Sunbed) Act of 2014 prohibiting the use of sunbeds in under 18-year-olds in Ireland we reported the rate of sunbed use at 7.5%. Objectives The aim of the study was to compare the rate of sunbed usage among Irish teenagers before and after the introduction of banning legislation to determine if it had the desired effect of reducing its rate of use. Methods In a cross-sectional survey, students from the same schools as in our previous study completed an anonymous, written questionnaire pertaining to sunbed usage. Results In total, 783 questionnaires, from 13 schools across Ireland, were completed. The rate of sunbed use in the current study was 7.2%, compared to 7.5% in the pre-ban study, (P = 0.76). A higher rate of sunbed use was observed in Dublin schools and female public students. Conclusion Our study suggests that legislation alone is ineffective at reducing sunbed usage in a teenage population. A multifaceted approach is required that includes enforcement of the legislation together with targeted public education and awareness campaigns using all aspects of the media.

The discursive representation of Islam and Muslims in the British tabloid press

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noureddine Miladi
Keyword(s):  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Negative Stereotypes ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Media ◽  
Political Speeches ◽  
The One ◽  
Tabloid Press ◽  
And Diffusion

This article employs Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) on a sample from British tabloid newspapers to unearth the representation of Islam and Muslims. It attempts to unpack the evolving discursive language and its impact on the reinvention and diffusion of negative stereotypes such as the ‘terrorism’ frame. With a specific focus the study considers the media’s systematic distortion of Islamic conceptions/religious terminologies such as ‘Islamist’, ‘Fatwa’, ‘Sharia’, ‘Jihad’, ‘Hijab’ and ‘Islamic State’, which are founded on what Edward Said calls the ‘ideology of difference’. Findings from this study show that such conceptions have not only lost their original significance as established in the mainstream Islamic literature, but have become on the one hand associated with the War on Terror and its ramifications and on the other have become exclusively signifying specific pejorative connotations. Fear and threat have become the meanings and frames firmly embedded in these Islamic terminologies. In the minds of the public this association is now taken for granted due to the prevailing values being recurrently circulated through the media, political speeches, ‘thinktanks’ literature and policy-making documents.

scholarly journals Media coverage of mental health care in the UK, USA and Australia

2003 ◽  
Vol 27 (9) ◽  
pp. 331-333 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beatrice Huang ◽  
Stefan Priebe
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Mental Health Care ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Mental Illnesses ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Uk

Aims and MethodWe aimed to assess the contents and tone of articles on mental health care in the UK print media by comparing them with reporting in the USA and Australia. Two broadsheets from each country were analysed using the Internet for a random 4 months over a 1-year period. The number of articles, their content and the views expressed in them were identified and compared.ResultsA total of 118 articles on mental health care issues were found. The predominant tone of the articles in all three countries was negative, though there were slightly more positive articles in the USA and Australian media. Positive articles highlighted in the UK media covered mostly medical conferences and research findings.Clinical ImplicationsEfforts to achieve a more positive attitude towards people with mental illnesses in the public, such as anti-stigma campaigns, operate against a background of predominantly negative coverage of mental health care issues in broadsheets. The coverage in the UK may tend to be even less positive than in the USA and Australia. Medical conferences and research findings can, however, be used to promote positive views of mental health care in the media.

Virality as a paradigm of digital communication. Review of the concept and update of the theoretical framework

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
José-Borja Arjona-Martín ◽  
Alfonso Méndiz-Noguero ◽  
Juan-Salvador Victoria-Mas
Keyword(s):  
Personal Information ◽  
Personal Communication ◽  
Rapid Expansion ◽  
The Internet ◽  
The Public ◽  
Personal Influence ◽  
Close Proximity ◽  
The Media ◽  
Flow Of Information ◽  
Theoretical Foundations

Viral communication has experienced noticeable changes since its first definition by Rushkoff in 1994. Some changes have been of such a nature that they have rendered the notions employed at the end of the last century and at the start of the 21st century obsolete. This present article tries to update and synthesize the concept of virality as the backbone of the current forms of communication and, especially, those that are born and triggered in social networks. For this we will use a classic bibliographic review methodology, which will try to investigate the background, the elements and the foundations of the concept. As a result of this revision, we will extract a new concept of viral communication, as a form of integration between the media and their messages or, also, as a form of global hybridization. In this context, the article will try to establish the theoretical foundations of virality as a paradigm of digital and connected communication. Personal communication, originally developed from leader theory and personal influence starting with contacts in close proximity (word-of-mouth), is redefined by the Internet and by the application of marketing (which has developed it under the name of permission or relational). With its rapid expansion in the early 1990s, the phenomenon of personal influence took on a new dimension. This happened mainly because the Internet is essentially a decentralized structure, where the nodes and points of influence are crucial for the flow of information. So we must think of network-based communication as a collaborative process. These forms of communication stand out for requiring personal information and allowing segmentation of the public and personalization of communication related actions.

scholarly journals The Spike Milligan Public Speaking Competition

2003 ◽  
Vol 27 (7) ◽  
pp. 273-273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin Brophy
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Public Education ◽  
Royal College ◽  
Public Speaking ◽  
Positive Experience ◽  
The Public ◽  
Education Committee ◽  
Positive Attitudes

The Spike Milligan Public Speaking Competition is a series of events conducted by the Irish Division of The Royal College of Psychiatrists' Public Education Committee. The initiative began as a local project, as part of the Changing Minds campaign. It is aimed at developing lifelong positive attitudes towards mental illness by doctors in training, and at redressing some of the stigma and negativity towards mental illness prevalent among trained doctors. It also aims to provide them with a positive experience of public speaking, in particular on mental health topics, and to enhance skills in communication with the public.

scholarly journals Media coverage of mental health care in the UK, USA and Australia

2003 ◽  
Vol 27 (09) ◽  
pp. 331-333 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beatrice Huang ◽  
Stefan Priebe
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Mental Health Care ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Mental Illnesses ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Uk

Aims and Method We aimed to assess the contents and tone of articles on mental health care in the UK print media by comparing them with reporting in the USA and Australia. Two broadsheets from each country were analysed using the Internet for a random 4 months over a 1-year period. The number of articles, their content and the views expressed in them were identified and compared. Results A total of 118 articles on mental health care issues were found. The predominant tone of the articles in all three countries was negative, though there were slightly more positive articles in the USA and Australian media. Positive articles highlighted in the UK media covered mostly medical conferences and research findings. Clinical Implications Efforts to achieve a more positive attitude towards people with mental illnesses in the public, such as anti-stigma campaigns, operate against a background of predominantly negative coverage of mental health care issues in broadsheets. The coverage in the UK may tend to be even less positive than in the USA and Australia. Medical conferences and research findings can, however, be used to promote positive views of mental health care in the media.

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