mass media owing to its wide reach influences public views about various issues including psychiatry and psychiatric illnesses .
the way in which mental illness is covered by various media sources hence , becomes crucial in determining how it is perceived .
mass media has mostly stigmatized mental illness by reinforcing negative stereotypes such as people with mental illness are childlike , antisocial and dangerous to themselves , and the society .
evil  leading to their devaluation and stigmatization . in terms of news coverage on television
various visuals can psychologically affect the viewer . similarly in print media , what is covered is as important as how and where it is covered .
the placement of the news piece within the newspaper is an important factor that affects how it is read and perceived by the readers .
in fact , the placement of certain news stories in the newspaper affects its probability of being read , for instance , stories on the left - hand side of a newspaper were seen significantly earlier than stories on the right hand side by the readers in a study by hansen .
it is also likely that  front - page  placement of news stories may affect the reader more than  other - page  placement .
there have been a large number of policies and reforms for educating public about mental illness and for de - stigmatizing psychiatry as a discipline . recently through television advertisements , ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kom9dwsq5c8 [ last accessed 20 july , 2013 ] ) the national mental health program , india has taken an initiative to educate public about mental illnesses so that they see it like any other illness and seek treatment for the same without feeling stigmatized . the relationship between public opinions and media is to some extent bi - directional , with evidence of causal pathway running from negative media coverage to the prejudicial pathway in the public minds .
most media coverage of mental illness , suicides ( both completed and attempted ) , and sex - related crimes are third party accounts such as information from friends , family , or the reporters own version . currently , there are guidelines for coverage of suicide - related news but not for other psychiatric illnesses .
there is no data from the indian subcontinent regarding how psychiatry - related news is covered in the print media .
this paper is a cross - sectional study of news coverage related to psychiatry and psychiatric illnesses in two of the most widely read dailies from the city of mumbai over a period of 3 months .
two newspapers from the city of mumbai - times of india ( toi ) and hindustan times ( ht ) were selected and scanned daily over a period of 3 months from april 1 , 2013 to june 30 , 2013 .
these two dailies were selected because they are the two most widely read newspapers with toi ranking first ( a readership of 16.2 lakhs ) and ht second ( a readership of 8 lakhs ) in mumbai ; in india toi has a readership of 76.5 lakhs while ht has a readership of 37.9 lakhs .
the two papers were scanned separately by two authors on a daily basis ( toi - gk ; ht - ss ) and then each paper was again cross - scanned by the two authors ( toi - ss ; ht - gk ) to ensure that all related news stories were included in our analysis .
the papers were scanned page - by - page to retrieve stories that included any of the following terms : schizophrenia / psychosis , mood disorder , mental illness with substance use , anxiety , eating disorders , dementia and other geriatric psychiatric illness , childhood psychiatric disorder ( including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder [ adhd ] , conduct disorder , autism , learning disability ) , suicide / self - injurious behavior ( sib ) , sex - related crimes ( rape , molestation , child sexual abuse ) and/or sexual dysfunction , treatment / recovery and rehabilitation , mental health / mental illness , psychiatrist / mental health expert .
we also looked for grouping / clustering of various news items within a single page of the newspaper .
for the purpose of our study , we defined  clustering  as the presence of three or more news items on the same page ( clustering - others ) .
clustering related to sexual crimes ( clustering - sex ) consisted of three or more sex - crime related news items on a single page .
a total of 870 news stories were retrieved from the two newspapers over a period of 3 months [ table 1 ] . about 93.57% of these were in the body of the newspapers while only 6.43% were on the front page .
maximum numbers ( 68.73% ) of items were in the city / region / nation section of the newspaper .
coverage of psychiatry related news stories in various sections of newspapers the highest number ( n = 455 ; 52.29% ) of stories in these two dailies were on sex - related crimes and/or sexual dysfunction .
overall for our study duration , front pages of both the newspapers covered most items ( n = 30 ) on sex - related crimes and/or sexual dysfunction .
it is also worthwhile to note here that although these two categories were clubbed together , there were just 23 stories that covered sexual dysfunction and the rest covered sex - related crimes . schizophrenia / psychosis comprised only 0.22% of the total stories
( n = 2 ) while depression comprised a slightly higher 5.74% ( n = 50 ) of the total stories .
mental illness associated with substance use was covered in just three stories during the duration of our study .
anxiety disorders comprised 2.06% ( n = 18 ) of the total psychiatry - related stories and were mostly covered in the lifestyle section of the newspapers .
eating disorder was hardly covered with just one story in the global / international section .
( n = 10 ) with maximum coverage being in the international / global section ( n = 7 ) .
childhood psychiatric disorders were covered in 1.72% ( n = 15 ) of the total stories with the most coverage being given to learning disability and adhd .
of these 18 stories were on the front page with the rest being covered in other sections of the newspapers .
treatment , recovery , and rehabilitation was very rarely covered with only 1.03% ( n = 9 ) of related news being on this issue .
about 4.48% ( n = 39 ) stories made a mention of the person in the story being mentally ill or having some mental health issues without specifying the diagnosis of the person . a mental health expert was quoted in 7.93% ( n = 69 ) of the total stories .
clustering was more commonly seen with sex - related crime stories ( n = 17 ; 1.95% ) and less commonly with other psychiatric illnesses ( n = 6 ; 0.689% ) . with sex - related crime stories ,
clustering was seen almost exclusively in the city / region / nation sections of the newspapers .
mental illness was linked to crime in just one news story during the duration of our study .
our study looks at the coverage of news stories related to psychiatry and psychiatric illnesses in two major dailies of mumbai , india . with a total of 870 stories retrieved over a period of 3 months , it is impressive how the print media is paying attention to psychiatry and related news stories . around 24 million
, we found only 2 stories on schizophrenia and psychosis in the international section of the newspaper . with this minimal coverage ,
it is clear that schizophrenia is not forming a major part of story material for the media .
media including films have often falsely portrayed schizophrenia in a negative light giving an impression that the patient is mostly violent and absurd .
there is thus a probability that media selectively looks out for schizophrenia - related stories that have an element of violence and absurdity in it , without which the stories are not covered and hence the lesser number of stories in our study .
a similar picture was seen in the coverage of depression and mood disorders with very few stories being covered , despite the fact that there is a rise in cases of depression and mood disorders worldwide .
moreover , most stories of depression in our study were linked to suicide stories , which reflect the fact that depression is the most common psychiatric illness in suicide cases . in recent times
, there is a growing interest in the co - occurrence of mental illness and alcohol or other drug use .
alcohol and other drug use has been associated with mental illness , but a complete understanding of this co - morbid condition in not yet completely clear .
a meta - analysis by reddy and chandrashekar , revealed an overall substance use prevalence of 6.9/1000 for india with urban and rural rates of 5.8 and 7.3/1000 population , respectively .
though anecdotal experience shows that this is a common co - morbidity in clinical populations within india , in our study , we found that there were only three stories that covered this issue , thus making coverage on this issue minimal .
anxiety disorders can consist of brief episodic anxiety due to a stressful event like public speaking to a chronic disorder lasting over 6 months . in our study ,
this section , read by a large number of readers , covers a wide range of issues including but not limited to exercise , diet , personal care and hygiene , physical and mental fitness , dating and relationships , and personality .
anxiety being mostly covered in this section can be viewed as media 's efforts in normalizing the experience of anxiety , thus increasing awareness in the readers .
media coverage of slim models and their effect on the general public , who then try to have slimmer bodies , has always been a topic of discussion . during the 3 months of our study
, we came across a single story of a celebrity dying of anorexia nervosa covered in the international section .
this reflects the fact that eating disorders are rarely seen in developing countries but are more common in the developed nations .
dementia was the most common elderly psychiatric disorder covered in the stories on geriatric psychiatric disorders .
there was not enough coverage for childhood psychiatric problem in the newspapers in our study . among those covered , autism and
recently , there has been an increased awareness of learning disability and autism in children in india and their rights in mainstream education , which is reflected within the news stories .
over 170 stories were on suicide and self - injurious behaviors with 18 stories being on the front page .
such placement of suicide stories on the front page is likely to influence readers since it increases the prominence of the story , and is also against the international guidelines for suicide reporting in media .
with over 450 stories on sex - related crime and/or sexual dysfunction , it is obvious that the print media is paying more attention to such news stories . in the covered stories
, we could hardly find any mention of related laws and punishment for such crimes .
moreover , there was more grouping of such stories together ( clustering ) with some pages covering up to 6 different sex - related crime stories . such high coverage including a higher clustering of sex - related crime stories is not appropriate , as it may negatively affect the readers and is likely to lead to the over - inflated perception of such crimes
overall , it was observed that the newspapers were sensationalizing stories related to suicide and sex crime .
the print media should instead pay more attention to make a mention of helpline numbers in suicide stories and laws and punishment in sex - related crimes .
psychiatric illnesses are mostly treatable , and the media can play an important role in educating public about psychiatric illnesses and their treatment .
this could be achieved through mental - health expert opinions and covering short stories of treatments and recoveries in psychiatric patients . though mental health expert opinions and quotes were found in 70 stories in our study , it is still a very small number .
nevertheless , it is encouraging enough to see that the media is turning to more expert opinions in their stories thus increasing their credibility .
experts can help by providing explanations , evaluations , and recommendations on various issues related to the news stories .
advocacy efforts could be aimed at encouraging journalists in spreading public awareness by providing specific information about the illness , available treatment and how to seek services .
the majority of previous research has suggested that themes related to crime and violence are common in the coverage of mental illness by news media . however in our study , we found only one news item where a serial killer was described as mentally ill .
this is encouraging as it shows a shift from the stereotyped killer - psycho mentality that is usually portrayed in the media .
out study was limited by the fact that we used a set of keywords and search terms to identify news stories to be included .
although these terms were broad based and covered most psychiatry - related issues , some stories might still have been missed . a separate study to compare the output with different search terms
it is highly likely these are read by only a section of the population . a different study including more newspapers from the entire country may give a complete picture .
newspapers are a part of the larger mass media that also includes television , radio , and the internet .
we , however , did not include these sources and focused only on newspapers and that took over a period of 3 months .
future research efforts need to include these sources as well and need to be done over a longer period of time to understand the trends of media reporting of psychiatry - related news stories .
finally , we did not look at whether these news items covered the stories in a positive or a negative light and how they affected the readers .
it is important to see how readers interpret print media messages and how these interpretations inform their attitudes and beliefs .
out study was limited by the fact that we used a set of keywords and search terms to identify news stories to be included .
although these terms were broad based and covered most psychiatry - related issues , some stories might still have been missed . a separate study to compare the output with different search terms
it is highly likely these are read by only a section of the population . a different study including more newspapers from the entire country may give a complete picture .
newspapers are a part of the larger mass media that also includes television , radio , and the internet .
we , however , did not include these sources and focused only on newspapers and that took over a period of 3 months .
future research efforts need to include these sources as well and need to be done over a longer period of time to understand the trends of media reporting of psychiatry - related news stories .
finally , we did not look at whether these news items covered the stories in a positive or a negative light and how they affected the readers .
it is important to see how readers interpret print media messages and how these interpretations inform their attitudes and beliefs .
psychiatry and psychiatric illnesses have always found a place within media including news stories in television or newspapers and films .
viewers and readers pay closer attention to such stories since they are often sensationalized by the media .
the current study is a preliminary study that looks at coverage of psychiatry - related news stories in two of the most widely read english newspapers from mumbai , india .
it was seen that psychiatry - related stories did form an important part of the entire news though there was much more attention paid to sex - related crime stories that added an element of sensationalism to the newspapers .
there were some instances where mental health experts were quoted in the stories , although the number was relatively small but encouraging . in the future , one needs to look into deeper aspects of such news coverage including positive or negative coverage and their effects on the attitudes of the readers .
 mass media including television , internet , and newspapers influences public views about various issues by means of how it covers an issue . 
 newspapers have a wider reach and may affect the impact that a news story has on the reader by factors such as placement of the story within the different pages . 
 we did a pilot study to see how two english newspapers from mumbai , india were covering psychiatry related news stories . 
 the study was done over a period of 3 months . 
 we found a total of 870 psychiatry related news stories in the two newspapers over 3 months with the majority of them being covered in the main body of the newspapers . 
 sex - related crime stories and/or sexual dysfunction stories received the highest coverage among all the news while treatment and/or recovery related stories received very little coverage . 
 it is crucial that the print media takes more efforts in improving reporting of psychiatry - related stories and help in de - stigmatizing psychiatry as a discipline . 
INTRODUCTION
METHODOLOGY
RESULT
DISCUSSION
Limitations
CONCLUSION