Portrayal of Mental Illness on Television: A Review of the Literature

The focus of this thesis is to present peer-reviewed studies relating to mental illness and television. Up to this point there has not been a review paper exclusively examining mental illness and television exclusively. For this review, only articles with a defined research design were included. Seven content analysis articles were identified measuring images of mental illness on television. Content analysis articles covered children's television, primetime entertainment programs, and soap operas. Five studies were identified surveying attitudes and beliefs of viewers after seeing images of mental illness on television. Research revealed that mental illness is portrayed negatively on television. Commonly, characters with mental illness are shown as violent, villainous, and unintelligent. Attitudes are affected by the number of hours of television watched, the viewer's education level, having direct experience with a person diagnosed with a mental illness, as well as seeing negative portrayals of mental illness on television.In the future, collaborative relationships to educate professionals working in media need to be established. Anti-stigma interventions should target specific populations that do not have regular contact with mentally ill patients. Future research needs to include the opinions and experiences of mental health service consumers. Current content analysis research focuses heavily on programs aired on American network television (ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox); in the future original programs on cable networks should be included in the samples. Similarly, unscripted reality television is gaining popularity and should be considered for analysis in the future. When attitudes and beliefs are measured, the samples of participants surveyed need to be made up of a wide range of ages, education levels, and experiences, instead of the homogenized groups currently being surveyed. Public health professionals have a responsibility to be advocates to the mental health community. It is of public health significance to ensure the most accurate information is disseminated to the general public in order to reduce incorrect assumptions and negative stigmas surrounding mental illness

The influence of television on vocabulary, concepts and preferences of children in grades one and two.

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston University N.B.: With which is bound Currie, Jamesena. A study of twenty-five first grade children's preferences for television programs

Content analysis of children's programs on Boston's television stations

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit

Sex on TV: Content and Context

Part of a series that examines the nature and extent of sexual messages conveyed on American television. Focuses on references to contraception, safer sex, and waiting to have sex. Based on a sample of 1997-1998 programs

Rating Forecasts for Television Programs

This paper investigates the effect of aggregation and non-linearity in relation to television rating forecasts. Several linear models for aggregated and disaggregated television viewing have appeared in the literature. The current analysis extends this work using an empirical approach. We compare the accuracy of population rating models, segment rating models and individual viewing behaviour models. Linear and non-linear models are fitted using regression, decision trees and neural networks, with a two-stage procedure being used to model network choice and viewing time for the individual viewing behaviour model. The most accurate forecast results are obtained from the non-linear segment rating models.Decision Trees, Disaggregation, Discrete Choice Models, Neural Networks, Rating Benchmarks

Making sense of TV for children : the case of Portugal

Empowering children for a critical and judicious use and consumption of media is a main objective of media literacy. This paper aims to examine the range of television programs available for children in Portugal through a comparative analysis of the programming for children broadcast by the four Portuguese terrestrial channels (RTP1, RTP2, SIC and TVI) over the course of a year. A content analysis of 4,491 programs reveals that about one third have an explicit educational goal and that preschool children are the primary target audience for children’s television. There are clear differences among Portuguese public and private channels in the content and themes of children’s television programming and little children’s television production comes from Portugal. Television itself could promote this aim through the programs it provides to children, as established in the Agreement for Public Service Television signed in 2008 by the Portuguese State and the public television channel, RTP, but it has yet to be enforced

Why do people enjoy watching natural disasters and human violence on television? : A reversal theory perspective

We explored the psychological links that may exist between people's choices of television program, conversation topics around the content of these programs, and people's perceived degree of threat associated with these programs. The theoretical framework of the study was reversal theory (Apter, 2001). Participants were presented with a series of questionnaires assessing the degree of threat associated with potentially stressful situations (e.g., running of the bulls), the degree of enjoyment associated with television programs dealing with these situations (e.g., watching a report about the running of the bulls), and the degree of enjoyment associated with participation in conversations about these programs. The overall finding was that (a) most people like to watch frightening television programs because they find these situations to be the most entertaining once their negative consequences have been removed, (b) most people like to choose conversation topics centered on risks and risky situations for the same reason, (c) some people dislike watching frightening television programs and do not preferentially choose conversation topics centered on risks and risky situations because these situations, although not real for them, are still highly stressful, and possibly psychologically harmful. We highlight the usefulness of the concept of protective frame in the domain of risk communication, risk perception, and risk behavio