SEEING ISN’T BELIEVING –

JUNE 21, 2021 – In November 2020 another family buried their son. Ricardo Muñoz was a 27-year-old man battling schizophrenia for five years. After refusing to take his medication, Muñoz had begun to experience a mental episode 

During this episode, Munoz’s mother and sisters called a crisis hotline, the non-emergency police number, and eventually 911 in an attempt to find help. In the 911 call, Munoz’s sister said that Ricardo was being aggressive, attempting to enter the house, and mentally ill. The police believed they had a domestic disturbance and shot and killed Muñoz minutes after they arrived. 

America has a serious issue when it comes down to viewing the mentally ill. For several decades, the media has misrepresented mental illness, resulting in a failure to help those struggling with mental health, a mischaracterization of particular illnesses, and a sense of fear regarding mental illness itself. 

As a country, it is the responsibility of the majority to provide help and resources to those in the minority experiencing hardship. People often fail to see how America continues to hurt those struggling with mental health. 

Throughout American history, minorities have been belittled and mistreated due to how they were wrongfully represented by the media. One of the earliest examples of this is minstrel shows which were very popular all over America from the mid-1800s until the early 1900s. These shows harmed African Americans’ ability to have equal rights for generations because of how they were negatively represented and continue to create sociopolitical hurdles to achieving equality. 

In a similar light, unrealistic and stereotypical portrayals of those struggling with mental health have affected how much of America views mental illness. The perspective many Americans have limits the country’s ability to truly create any meaningful change when it comes down to providing proper treatments to those with mental illnesses. The media has created myths regarding mental illness that much of America still believes. These can consist of believing that sufferers are violent, unpredictable, or that they don’t improve with treatment. While these myths are potentially damaging to all of society, they have a profound impact on victims of mental illness 

Heather Stuart, a researcher in community health at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, found that media misrepresentation had a substantially negative effect on mental health sufferer’s self-esteem, willingness to ask for help, and sticking to their recovery plans due to the stigma created by the media. 

In terms of media, framing refers to how the media portrays events and people by adding details and using specific pieces of information to display a narrative on what is good and bad. The way that our media is framed ultimately sets up how an audience should feel about an issue. This process is known as priming. Changing the way the media frames mental illness is essential in helping those who suffer from them.

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