Mental disorders are discussed in the media and in the psychology and psychiatry literature. However, the description of disorders in the media and their actual scientific presentation may differ significantly and mislead the average reader. This paper aims to investigate and identify differences in how newspapers, magazines, and news feeds describe mental disorders and the textbook versions of symptoms.
In 2022, there was a horrific school shooting in Texas that killed 21 people, including 19 children and two teachers. A high school student bought a rifle a few days after he turned 18. In addition to those killed, 17 people suffered from the shooting, with varying degrees of severity of injuries. ABC News, when describing what happened, focuses on reviews of the young man’s abnormal behavior (Jacobo & El-Bawab, 2022). The newspaper cites the words that the man was known for constant fights and threats to classmates, but the official diagnosis of the offender is not given. According to the textbook, such symptoms exist and may be indicative of antisocial personality disorder (Geddes & Andreasen, 2020). Thus, the mass media presented correct data about the possible illness of the offender.
The second incident occurred in 2022 in Buffalo when a white man opened fire in a supermarket and killed ten African Americans for racial reasons. The NPR News gives a description of the perpetrator and says that he was attacked by manic thoughts that the African-American race will soon replace the whites (The Associated Press, 2022). Therefore, they must be prevented through destruction and hate-motivated killings. Although the newspaper does not give an official diagnosis, the publication points to the man’s abnormal behavior. The textbook gives similar symptoms that can be categorized as manic psychosis (Geddes & Andreasen, 2020). Thus, in these cases, there was no significant difference between media and textbook representations of the disorder.
References
Geddes, J. R., & Andreasen, N. C. (2020). New Oxford textbook of psychiatry. Oxford University Press, USA.
Jacobo, J. & El-Bawab, N. (2022). Timeline: How the shooting at a Texas elementary school unfolded. ABC News, 2-5.
The Associated Press. (2022). Buffalo shooting suspect says his motive was to prevent ‘eliminating the white race’. NPR News, 3-4.