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Emily Davis

Professor Madruga

ENC 1102

24 November 2019

Scholarly Article

Introduction

There is a lot of controversy over the portrayal of depression in the media. As of today,

the discussion about depression is still fairly negative when it comes to certain situations.

However, others think it is necessary to bring attention to this problem and raise awareness for

this mental illness. Many people are beginning to realize that the negative conversations need to

change. Within the community of mental health professionals and mass media industries, the

amount of information that is misconstrued is incredible. Depression is known for effecting

things like everyday activities, negative thoughts, as well as the way people act. The media

portrays this mental illness in a negative way and brushes it off like it is nothing. Not only is it a

major issue that needs to be addressed, it also needs to be fixed. People that research the way the

media discusses depression found that it leads to less people taking action with obtaining help for

their mental illness.

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Research Questions

I am very curious to learn about how the media portrays depression compared to other

mental illnesses and to see how the conversation has shifted overtime. For example, in 13

Reasons Why: Beyond the Reasons, I plan to analyze the language used when discussing

depression and the effects that depression have on different individuals in the situation.

Questions I plan to ask my data are: Do the actions of the character with depression accurately

represent actions of someone who actually suffers from depression? How do news articles speak

about depression and what type of language is used to discuss it? Is it positive or negative? What

does the media exclude from news articles, movies and tv shows that could potentially make

depression look more negative? How does the discussion of depression in cinematic media differ

from the discussion in mass media? Are the differences positive or negative?

Literature Review:

When looking into Communities of Practice, mental health professionals would fall into

one professional community where they understand their own language and the things being

spoken about (Johns, 324). For example, certain terms that psychologists, psychiatrists and other

mental health professionals understand, many other people will not, similar to when Klass

explained how doctors have their own language to keep a barrier between themselves and the

patient (Klass, 344). The mass media outlets would be in a separate social community since their

level of knowledge on mental illnesses is not the same as the mental health professionals. In

Klass’ article, the patient and other people around the medical professional do not know the

language until they are involved in that profession (Klass, 345). When answering these

questions, I plan to inform people of whether or not the media is a reliable source of information
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or not. Many false movies, TV shows and news articles have been released on the topic of

mental illness and I feel that they are not portrayed in the correct way that will adequately inform

young adults of this issue.

When it comes to depression in mass media, the conversations being had about this topic

range. There is a stigma associated with depression and many other mental illnesses that effect

people’s behavior. This stigma causes many false notions about depression when it is a very

common thing among people, especially young adults. Different situations that involve

depression seem to only show negative and more dangerous and criminal sides of depression

instead of the fact that many people live normally day to day with this mental illness. In today’s

research, one thing I found that has not been researched is social media and depression. As time

goes on, social media is becoming a more popular source for information. Things like the news,

newspapers, magazines, etc. are not as popular as Twitter, Instagram or Facebook. Although it is

a good source of information, it is not always credible. I feel that since social media targets the

younger generations, whatever is portrayed or discussed can easily influence the way younger

adults take in this information.

Primary Research

For my research, I plan to pay more attention to the real time news articles as well as a

movie that portrays depression and a TV show that has changed the path of the discussion of

mental illnesses. Many movies that portray depression, show the symptoms and outcomes of

depression to be something very detrimental to one’s everyday life. Even though in certain

situations that may be true, I feel that depression and other mental illnesses are exaggerated too
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much because people live with these mental illnesses on a day to day basis while living their

normal lives. Although depression can be a dangerous mental illness, not every case will result in

that way.

When answering my research questions, I want to be able to explain what I find and give

an accurate answer and representation of the media and how reliable it is when it comes to

depression. To collect my data for my research I am going to analyze the movie Cyberbully, the

TV show 13 Reasons Why: Beyond the Reasons, and various different news articles. In total I

will be analyzing four different pieces of data. I chose these pieces of data for the sole reason

that they discussed depression, whether it be symptoms, actions or reasons for certain actions.

The reason I only chose four pieces of data was because there is a plethora of movies that discuss

depression as well as many TV shows and news articles. I feel like it would be overwhelming to

examine an entirety of a TV show, multiple movies and news articles and I would be left with

too much data to handle.

I found a few sources that have looked at similar things involving mental illnesses. For

example, one study looked at magazines that were aimed at American males, The Portrayal of

Depression in Magazines Designed for Men. These magazines discussed things like symptoms of

depression, outcomes of depression, ways to get help, etc. The researcher found that males were

less likely to search for help if depression was not discussed. When depression was discussed

positively, men were more likely to search for help (Clarke, 202).
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Theoretical Framework

For my theoretical framework, I will be using John’s Communities of Practice. Klass was

a great example of the issues that could rise in a community. For example, she discusses the

issues one would face in the medical field not knowing the language that a doctor or physician

would know (Klass). For my research, I plan on comparing the language used in news articles

the movie Cyberbully to 13 Reasons Why: Beyond the Reasons because in this show, mental

health professionals speak on the issue. I will also examine how the media uses certain words or

phrases to describe depression. I will be relying on Klass’ example of how certain words, phrases

or abbreviations are used to cover up what the doctor is saying so the patient does not panic or

worry because it very closely relates to how certain words or situations pertaining to depression

could easily be misinterpreted.

In today’s world, there are many things that mass media says that could easily cause

panic and for some reason, these things seem to make depression look worse and cause this

mental illness to look dangerous. The data that I will be using is the movie Cyberbully, 13

Reasons Why: Beyond the Reasons, and two news articles pertaining to depression as well as a

few research articles that also relate to depression in mass media. I believe that the movie and

TV show will be complete opposites as the movie displays depression and suicide from a

fictional perspective whereas the TV show portrays depression and suicide as a more non-

fictional perspective. These two things will also relate because they are both aimed at young

adult audiences and both portray the same mental illness, the same causes for that mental illness

and the same outcome, which is suicide. I feel that the news articles will also connect as they are

more informative and reliable sources of information for the public.

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With my framework in mind, I plan to analyze the language used in conversations or

descriptions as well as actions taken by the affected character. For example, I plan to analyze the

diction of the character has depression. I feel that within entertainment media like this, that there

will be many consistencies with the words used. I also plan to analyze the word choice used by

news outlets and determine if there is a positive or negative connotation that comes along with it.

I plan to look at the titles used to see if there is any negative portrayal there. I hope to find that

the language used is more geared towards making mental illnesses, such as depression, more

dangerous. However, I feel that I will find the language is not as direct as I hoped and could be

very easily misinterpreted.

Data Collection

Choosing which data I was going to do my research on was easy but difficult. Having to

choose from many different movies and TV shows that are based on depression was the hardest

part. Being able to narrow it down to one movie and one TV show was most difficult but after

choosing those two things, it got a lot easier. I chose the movie Cyberbully and the TV show 13

Reasons Why: Beyond the Reasons. I have also chosen a news article titled: “What’s Driving the

Rise in Teen Depression?”, as well as an article titled: “Media’s Damaging Depiction of Mental

Illness”. I specifically chose these four pieces of data for the sole reason that they discuss

depression as well as the effects of depression.

To collect my data, I transcribed eight minutes of the movie Cyberbully and then In-Vivo

coded specific parts of that scene. This helped me analyze the language that the character with
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depression used along with the people around her. I also transcribed and In-Vivo coded the

episode of 13 Reasons Why: Behind the Reasons. I did not have to transcribe the two news

articles that I found but I did use In-Vivo coding as well for the articles which allowed me to

pick out specific words and phrases that supported my research questions.

Results

After analyzing my data and coding, I realized a few different things that were consistent

throughout my research. The biggest pattern I noticed was that mass media is the reason for the

stigma associated with depression. As the world progresses, social media and news outlets are

the main way that young adults obtain their news and information. In the article “Media’s

Damaging Depictions of Mental Illness”, it states, “Whether it’s a graphic depiction or an

insinuating remark, the media often paint a grim and inaccurate picture.” The issue today is that

the media never gives the full picture. In this article the example is given of a lady who set her

son’s dog on fire. The person reporting on this story ended the segment by stating that she had

been depressed recently. Although that could have been the reason for her setting the dog on fire,

stating that that was the sole reason, creates a stigma for depression.

The stigma associated with depression leads to the next theme I quickly realized. The

stigma causes many people to shy away from getting help for their mental illness. Since this

stigma is blasted everywhere, it causes many people to fear the way they would be seen if they

were diagnosed with depression and seeked help. In the study about the male magazine, The

Portrayal of Depression in Magazines Designed for Men, it explains how the researcher found

that if depression was discussed in this magazine in a positive way, then men were more likely to
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reach out and ask for help. However, if depression was not talked about or discussed in a

negative way, men would not seek help at all.

Another main pattern I noticed, especially with cinematic media, was if the story was

more fictional, the accuracy of the depiction of depression was off. However, if the story was

more non-fiction, the accuracy was dead on. In “13 Reasons Why: Behind the Reasons”, this is a

more nonfictional story line that attempted to be accurate on all situations it portrayed. However,

in “Cyberbully”, this was a more fictional story which is where I found some flaws in the

accuracy of depicting depression. In “13 Reasons Why: Behind the Reasons”, depression is

discussed in a very mature and honest manor. In “Cyberbully”, the depiction of depression and

the portrayal of the main character attempting to commit suicide was very chaotic and flawed.

Once I finished collecting my data, I went back and tried to see if it answered any of my

questions. The answer is yes and no. It answered some of my questions. However, for other

questions it would require more data and a more in depth look of a comparison of all of that data.

My overall question was “How does the media portray depression?” The answer to that question

is sometimes bad and sometimes good. In the article, “Media’s Damaging Depictions of Mental

Illness”, it explains how mass media is creating a stigma associated with depression that leads

people to fear and discriminate against people with depression. While in “13 Reasons Why:

Beyond the reasons”, it explains how depression is a very normal thing to deal with and there is

nothing wrong with needing help. This TV show shows that depression is something that

majority of people deal with at some point in their life and are encouraged to seek treatment as it

is not something to be ashamed of. Other questions I asked were: Do the actions of the character
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with depression accurately represent actions of someone who actually suffers from depression?

In a fictional setting, no. However, in a nonfictional movie or TV show, yes. I also asked, how

do news articles speak about depression and what type of language is used to discuss it? Is it

positive or negative? When it comes to news articles discussing the topic about depression, it

usually has a certain type of situation or person attached to it. For example, when depression is

discussed it usually has to do with some sort of criminal activity or a mass shooting. The stigma

this puts on depression is terrible and the issue needs to be addressed. Another question I asked

my data was, what does the media exclude from news articles, movies and tv shows that could

potentially make depression look more negative? The media is really good at keeping

information out of the segment to make mental illnesses look more dangerous. How does the

discussion of depression in cinematic media differ from the discussion in mass media? Are the

differences positive or negative? In cinematic media, depression is mostly depicted as a fairly

normal thing. The main characters in this media are usually shown as normal people. They are

also shown as living their everyday lives normally with depression as well as not harming

anyone as a result of their mental illness. In mass media, depression is portrayed in a fairly

negative way. The terrible situations are always paired directly with depression and the world’s

biggest tragedies are usually blamed on someone who has a mental illness even though that may

not have been the leading cause for that incident.

One thing I found interesting while doing my research was the amount of discussions

being had about social media’s impact on depression. Many people are talking about how social

media is having an extremely negative impact on young adults and potentially causing

depression in teenagers. The show “13 Reasons Why: Behind the Reasons” discussed this topic
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as well. It was very interesting to read about and watch how social media played a big role in a

lot of the stories I read about.

Transcriptions: Coding:

Cyberbully: HATES

Taylor: I’m the real Taylor Hillridge.. and I REASON FOR TRYING, TALKING,
don’t know why everybody hates me so
much..but maybe I do because now I hate me BREATHING
too... right now I really don’t see the reason
for trying, or for talking, or for breathing...I’m DONE
just done… so that’s it I guess..bye.
13 Reasons Why: Beyond the Reasons: SUICIDE

Dr. Hedrick: Suicide is now the second SYMPTOM

leading cause of death for teenagers. And
every warning sign, every symptom of DEPRESSION
depression should be taken seriously. A
drastic change in behavior, a drop in their CHANGE IN BEHAVIOR
grades, getting in fights with their peers, or
parents, or authority figures, substance
abuse, these are all different signs to look out DROP IN GRADES
for.
FIGHTS

SUBSTANCE ABUSE

What’s Driving the Rise in Teen Depression?: SYMPTOMS

Symptoms of adolescent depression IRRITABILITY

frequently differ from symptoms in adults. For
example, youth may experience more SLEEP
irritability and moodiness, sleep at odd times
of the day and isolate themselves from ISOLATE
adults, particularly family members, but still
long to be with peers. Adults, however, may
experience insomnia, intense bouts of SADNESS
sadness and isolate themselves from both
friends and family.
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Media’s Damaging Depictions of Mental INFLUENCE

Illness:
MASS MEDIA

And these pictures can have a big influence PERSPECTIVE

on the public. Research has shown that
many people get their information about FEAR
mental illness from the mass media (Wahl,
2004). What they do see can color their AVOID
perspective, leading them to fear, avoid
and discriminate against individuals with DISCRIMINATE
mental illness.
AGAINST

Discussion

The main themes and patterns within my data mean that there is a serious issue that needs

to be addressed surrounding the community of mental health. Many people are aware that

depression is becoming a major issue and it is affecting more and more people every single day.

There are conversations that people are having regarding depression and what is needed to fix

the issue, however I feel that it is not discussed in a normal manor. I think that many people are

scared to talk about depression and mental illness because of its stigma.

When it comes to the mental health community, I feel my research does not contribute

much other than the fact that it could possibly begin a much-needed conversation about

something that is not discussed enough. Not only does my research create that conversation, but I

also hope that depression will become more accepted over time.
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Conclusion

After all of my research and data collection, I discovered that the conversations

about depression and other mental illnesses are more geared towards encouraging people

to seek help than it is negative. Although there are those few stories that create a stigma

around depression, the majority of the discussions are positive which I found interesting.

Once my data collection was complete, I realized that I did not find a lot of

language that was similar. I came across actions that were extremely similar when trying

to show how someone who is depressed would act. However, I did not find similar

language within the cinematic media. Other than that, the only thing I would say I did not

come across was specific news articles/stories that discussed only depression. Many news

outlets played the blame game with depression.

The only thing I would want my audience to take away from my research would

be that I want the conversation about depression to become more normal. The stigmas

associated with depression need to be gotten rid of and the media needs to address the

issue of making depression seem like a dangerous mental illness. Although it can be

dangerous, many people live normal lives on a day to day basis without harming a single

person.
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Works Cited:

Johns, Ann M. Discourse Communities and Communities of Practice. Cambridge

University Press, 1997.

Klass, Perri. “Learning the Language.” Composing Knowledge: Readings for

College Writers. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2007. Print.

Clarke, Juanne N. “The Portrayal of Depression in Magazines Designed for Men

(2000-2007).” International Journal of Men's Health, vol. 8, no. 3, 2009, pp. 202–212.,

doi:10.3149/jmh.0803.202.

Tartakovsky, Margarita. “Media's Damaging Depictions of Mental Illness.” Psych

Central, 18 Mar. 2019, psychcentral.com/lib/medias-damaging-depictions-of-

mental-illness/.

“What's Driving the Rise in Teen Depression?” U.S. News & World Report, U.S. News &

World Report, health.usnews.com/wellness/for-parents/articles/2019-04-22/teen-

depression-is-on-the-rise.

Biname, Charles, director. Cyberbully. ABC Family, 2011.

Gomez, Selena. “13 Reasons Why: Beyond the Reasons.” Season 1, 2017.
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