Reporting the Mind, Emotions and Health

By Roger Simpson

Posted 2/2/2011 1:22 PM PST

Nineteen students in our advanced reporting course talked in small groups today with five visitors who are living with serious mental conditions.  A mental illness advocacy group enlisted speakers willing to share their life experiences with such mental diagnoses as bipolar disorder, depression and schizophrenia.  The students in groups of three or four talked with a guest for a half hour or so, then welcomed a second visitor for another half-hour conversation.   We closed the session with comments from each of the guests.

Our aim was to involve future journalists in comfortable, yet candid, conversations about mental illness.  The session followed a two-hour orientation earlier in the week to the issue of media coverage of mental illness with a focus on stigmatization of people with mental illness.  Jennifer Stuber from the School of Social Work faculty at the University of Washington reviewed the solid evidence related to social prejudice about mental illness and we discussed ways that news coverage supports such attitudes.

The visitors praised the students for not asking invasive questions, for showing their openness to the conversation with introductions, firm handshakes and eye contact. 

It is our hope to continue this focus on understanding mental illness in this course.  The course is Advanced Reporting and is team taught this term by Joanne Silberner and Roger Simpson.

By Roger Simpson

Posted 2/1/2011 2:54 PM PST

There is a news story that routinely conflates a shooting or death with some terms that instantly convey mental illness. It is all too familiar to read or hear that a person acting strangely is viewed as a threat by police and has been wounded or killed. In many instances of this story, the first-day report includes a key word identifying mental illness, such as “bipolar,” “schizophrenic,” “delusional” or “depressed.” 

This news is reported in good faith with the link to possible mental illness provided by family members, police, neighbors, one-time classmates, etc. 

Is it fair to ask if first-day reporting needs this information, often speculative or based on hearsay.  If the police say someone was shot in response to posing a threat, that fact has considerable relevance, at least in the first effort to get a handle on the incident. If the supposed threat is linked indirectly to an attribution of mental illness, but without credible verification, the story takes on a new meaning: Mentally ill people are dangerous and threats to their communities.

The evidence does not support that conclusion, yet news reports persist in repeating it.  Can we discuss the simple expedient of withholding mental health information from first-day stories?  Comments welcome.

By Roger Simpson

Posted 1/28/2011 1:42 PM PST

I was reminded of the  challenge those who teach about mental illness face with the label problem. Two discussions published 15 years apart (1995 and 2010) made the point that “bipolar disorder” is a diagnostic label adopted by psychiatrists to replace the terms “manic depression” or “manic-depressive illness.”  Noting that the change in terms may have reflected an effort to reduce stigmatization, both writers argued that the earlier usage better reflected their experience with the condition.

A guide to reporting on mental health notes how casually journalists insert such terms as “schizoid” and “schizophrenic”  into copy when there is no reference to an individual’s illness.  

Journalism teachers might deal with these issues by emphasizing the details that would be part of a description of behavior.  Someone is indecisive, not schizophrenic. A person may act excitedly or enthusiastically, but not in a manic way.  He couldn’t speak in detail about what he had just experienced, instead of saying he was traumatized.

[Editor's Note:  The Seattle Times on Sunday reported that a county prosecutor had turned down a request to reopen a case involving the shooting by police of a man who had threatened officers with an ax.  Tracy Tardiff, a recent graduate of the University of Washington, had studied the case after the shooting in late October of last year.  Her commentary, offered below, argues that mental health resources should be offered by the media in stories that link violence by or against persons with mental disorders.  It is a fair question to raise in classroom reviews of reports of this kind.  RS]

By Tracy Tardiff

Posted 1/24/2011 1:47 PM PST

In Bainbridge Island, a suburban town a half-hour ferry ride from Seattle, a man called 911 on Oct. 26, yelling incoherently. Police recognized the man at the address. According to the police commander, there had been “prior reports dealing with mental issues” with this same caller. When they arrived to the scene, they found an aggressive and angry 43 year old man. After the man charged the police several times, the police shot a taser. But the man continued with the erratic behavior then ran into his garage apartment. The police followed him in, and after the man wielded an axe toward the officers, he was shot and killed.

Police frequently are called to cope with these situations. It is unknown in this case what mental illness the man had suffered, or whether he was receiving treatment. However, in the media coverage of the above incident, there was a missed opportunity to educate the public about mental illness. Read all »

By Tracy Tardiff

Posted 1/21/2011 1:30 PST

Why are journalists leaving out the mental illness connection?

In my recent analysis of reporting about violent incidents in the Seattle area, I discovered that when journalists cover a crime committed by a person with a mental condition, the mental-health angle of the story does not get much coverage. It’s rare to see a connection made to the mental illness and rare to see resources on mental health in the story or a sidebar.

In a recent tragedy in West Seattle, a troubled woman who had struggled for decades with schizophrenia killed several family members and then committed suicide. I checked the regional media coverage about her,  and of 14 articles and blog posts, just two included a list of mental health resources. Yet according to the National Institute of Mental Health, schizophrenia is a manageable disease. We know that mental illness affects many families. NAMI reports that one in four adults – approximately 57.7 million Americans – experience a mental health disorder in a given year. Read all »

By Roger Simpson

Posted 1/19/2011 2:48 PST

For years, the journalism program here at the University of Washington has given every student knowledge about traumatic emotional injury and provided experiences in the classroom that simulate the reality of news coverage in violent situations.  Students interview actors in a scenario that brings many kinds of emotions into play for the actors and the student reporters.  Our goal is to foster sensitive interviewing and to give students early awareness of how they may affected in their reporting.

While the students learn about traumatic injury and its severe form, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), they are learning most about how we present emotions to others in stressful situations.  They learn, for example, that when you interview and emotional person who are likely to be more emotional.

Roger Simpson is the Dart Professor of Journalism and Trauma at the University of Washington

By Roger Simpson

Posted 1/14/2011 at 1:04 PST

NPR’s Morning Edition today took us seven minutes into a nine-minute report on a study of public official assassins before it stumbled.

The report usefully cited invisibility and a desire for notoriety as reasons for the actions of people who attempted or succeeded with assassination efforts.  The report drew on the researchers behind a study published in 1999 in the Journal of Forensic Sciences.  Then at seven minutes into the story, the reporter used the words “crazy” and “insane” in offering an assumption some might make about such violent persons, and the researchers took up the terms in their replies. Read all »

By Roger Simpson

Posted 1/13/2011 12:23 PST

The past five days have offered a storm of thoughts about violence, emotions, mental health and illness, healing and resilience.  As our students process these unfolding responses to Saturday’s violence, we can help them learn more in the classroom. Read all »

By Roger Simpson

Posted 1/12/11 at 2:19 PST

I’m returning today to a few more words in David Brooks Tuesday column in The New York Times.  He identified knowledge about mental illness as a necessity for a collective understanding of the events in Tucson.  He concluded with this: ” . . . contemporary punditry lives in the world of superficial tactics and interests. It is unprepared with an event opens the door to a deeper realm of disorder, cruelty and horror.” Read all »

By Roger Simpson

Posted 1/11/12 12:50 PST

The unfolding Tucson story offers journalism teachers a rare opportunity to focus on the many ways mental illness is addressed in breaking news coverage.  I don’t have a class to face today, but here are some thoughts about addressing the subject. Read all »

By Roger Simpson

1/10/2011 2:16 PM PST

A wise mentor told me long ago that journalists will provide us with an answer to Why? long before they have a right to say they have an answer.  That inclination was in abundant evidence this past weekend as national and local media fought to get the newest bits of the Arizona shooting story out first. Read all »