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Essay On Media Effects On Mentally Ill

477 Words2 Pages

Studies continuously present that the media displays immensely ostentatious as well as thwarted depictions of the mentally ill, which emphasize aggressive and erratic behavior. The media shapes critical and condemnatory responses towards the mentally ill from society, which include fearfulness, rejection, and ridicule. The media is to be blamed for promoting stigma along with prejudice against the mentally ill. This stigma has proven to be more disabling than the illnesses that these individuals have. Media depiction of the mentally ill is often exaggerated, which leads to the overall portrayal being misleading and generally inaccurate. The mentally ill are rejected on a daily basis as the media has quite a persuasive effect on the attitudes and perceptions of millions of citizens. Whether it is by means of news broadcasting, television shows or films, the media functions as a colossal source of misrepresentation with regard to the attributes of the …show more content…

Individuals are even more prone to being influenced by the media 's portrayals when they have no prior knowledge of a concept. Being that the media 's depiction will be their first form of information with regard to the topic, it will indubitably have a durable effect on the individual 's perception. Thinking of this in terms of mental illness is quite devastating. If an individual is completely unaware of the realities of mental illness and individuals with mental illness and is exposed to a film depicting a mentally ill individual as erratic and frightening, that image will reside with them and will become how they perceive individuals with mental illness. While films such as I Am Sam send out quite accurate messages with regard to individuals with mental illness, others such as Psycho and The Silence of The Lambs, present pretty distorted representations of these

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