Assignment 2: Thinking Critically about Media Portrayals of Mental Health Disorders

Directions:

• Describe the ways in which the media tends to portray people who have mental health difficulties. Identify and use a news or media article that focuses on a case example as opposed to reviewing a disorder or experience. You can use outlets like NY Times, Buzzfeed, MSNBC, Huffington Post, The Washington Post and more.
• Additionally, to fully answer the questions, use the information from the textbook and power points, and find psychology articles to support your answers.
• Do not use articles that are about a specific mental illness, ie, a summary of childhood depressive symptoms or a description of Bipolar Disorder, instead use articles from news outlets that describe an individual or group and their experience of a mental health difficulty.
• Do not use journal or research articles, the focus of the assignment is media portrayals
• Use a disorder that is found in the DSM-V
• The focus of this assignment is critically viewing media representations of mental health disorders, as such, the focus of your answers should be on how mental illness is reported and described in the article (as opposed to only restating descriptions of different mental health disorders).

• Answer all of the questions in sections 1-5 in full sentences.
• Upload responses via Blackboard by 11:59pm on 05/15/24
• Worth 18 points

Specifics:

• Answers will be assessed based on clarity of responses, use of supporting examples,      thoroughness in answering all questions, and grammar.
• Length: Minimum of 4 -pages and maximum of 5-pages, Times New Roman 12-point font, 1-inch margins, double spaced
• Use a maximum of 4 quotes from the article and/or the textbook
• Upload responses via Blackboard by 11:59pm on Wednesday, May 15th 2024.
• There is a 24-hour grace period to submit the paper with a loss of 2 points.
• No papers will be accepted after the grace period.

1. Identify an example of mental illness that was reported in the news (not research artice or journal article) in the last two years. 
   • Put a link to the news article you are referencing in the paper.
   • Describe what was reported; the diagnosis, how it was described, if a mental health professional gave the diagnosis.
     • State if the above questions were not addressed in the article
     • Use quotations and cite the news source from which you are reporting.
2. Using what you have learned about diagnoses from the textbook, identify any signs or symptoms of this disorder that were reported in the article.
3. Using what you have learned about theories of the development of and etiology of mental health problems, explain one potential cause of this mental health disorder (neurobiological, social, cultural, genetic…). Use information from the textbook to explain the potential causes of the mental health disorder. Additionally, according to the textbook, describe at least one method that could be used to treat this disorder.  
4. Separate the facts from the description and address any opinions, exaggerations, stereotypes, or stigma that were added in the reporting of the original news report by the author of the article. For example, does the description of the diagnosis match up to the DSM-V criteria? To what degree does it or does it not match up?
   1. Pay attention the language used, what was reported and what was not, as well as any images that were used. 
   2. If there were no exaggerations, stereotypes, or stigma found in the reporting in the article, provide justification as to why it is not found in the article
5. Identify and name at least 2 sociocultural variables (ie, social identities such as race, gender identity, class, sexuality, disability, ethnicity, country of origin, religion, and more) that were used in the article. 
   1. Were these variables used to explain the disorder? Or to explain the person’s experiences with the disorder?
   2. What is your opinion on how the variables were used in the article?
   3. If sociocultural variables were not addressed, how do you think the lack of identifying these variables impacted what was written/how the person was portrayed? Name at least two sociocultural variables you think should have been addressed and describe why you think they should have been addressed.