Taking a look back at the biggest issues, Daily Telegraph journalist Anette Sharp’s article '13 reasons Jesinta and Buddy should postpone their summer wedding' triggered many StigmaWatch reports. Over 15,000 people read about the reaction to the piece online.
A number of court stories were also reported to StigmaWatch. One story that drew a lot of attention from StigmaWatchers was coverage of the trial of Sean Price for the murder of Masa Vukotic in The Age. The journalist who wrote the story, Michael Bachelard, explained ‘[The sources’] language was not entirely precise, a fact The Age acknowledged in a clarification as soon as it was drawn to our attention and verified.’
StigmaWatch also received a number of reports about advertising for a variety of products: hot water, scooters, nut spreads and nightclubs. Kraft’s advertisement ‘the right kind of nuts’ raised some eyebrows amongst StigmaWatchers. A spokesperson from Kraft’s parent company Mondelez explained that the ad wasn’t referring to mental illness and promised to review any future campaigns in light of StigmaWatch’s feedback.
StigmaWatchers submitted the most reports about media that trivialised mental illness and suicide, the second most reported issues were stories that were irresponsible or inaccurate. There were a number of StigmaWatch reports which also didn't meet the criteria or weren't in breach of Mindframe guidelines.
The majority of StigmaWatch reports this year were related to media portrayals of mental illness more generally. There were more reports made about media portrayals of Schizophrenia compared to other illnesses such as Bipolar Disorder or Depression. Compared to 2014, the percentage of StigmaWatch reports in relation to suicide and self harm have dropped from 30 to 23 per cent.
Good News reports
Sadly the number of Good News reports made in 2015 were still low compared to StigmaWatch reports. However there were a few outstanding examples of media that has contributed to the fight against mental illness stigma.
One example was a short television segment from Charlie Pickering on the ABC’s The Weekly. 'Regurgitating stigma is easy but it makes life harder for those with mental illness,' said Pickering in the segment. He was talking about the media commentary of a shooting in the US in which a journalist and cameraman were killed.
Journalists also covered little known mental illnesses such as hoarding disorder. Freelance journalist Erin O’Dwyer wrote about the illness for Sunday Life magazine, providing a number of different perspectives on living with the illness.