Care ethics, mental illnesses and media narratives

It's time to shift how stories are told and to dismantle harmful stereotypes. By Florence de Vries

- By Florence de Vries

boardrooms, clinics and editorial newsrooms: care.

Concerns about the misrepresentation in the media of South Africa's vulnerable communities are frequently attributed to a fragmented media landscape constrained by limited resources. In South Africa, in particular, these systemic challenges tend to impede accurate storytelling and also perpetuate stigmatising narratives about vulnerable groups.

In South Africa, health-related vulnerabilities, especially, are deeply interconnected with social and structural inequalities. Research from the University of Pretoria's Health Sciences Faculty recently highlighted that our vulnerable communities are disproportionately affected by HIV, tuberculosis, noncommunicable diseases and mental health challenges.

Shaped by a history of marginalisation, people living with a mental illness are frequently misrepresented by the media. In the past two decades, these misrepresentations have moved away from obviously stigmatising words like "crazy" or "deranged" to more subtle but harmful distortions. Examples of the latter include the frequent use of images displaying looks of despair perpetuating unspoken social standards for appropriate and inappropriate behaviour in the context of mental illnesses.