Evaluation of the StigmaWatch Program's Impact on Media Portrayals of Suicide and Mental Illness

SANE Australia's StigmaWatch program promotes responsible reporting of mental illness and suicide in the Australian media by contacting media professionals about portrayals that breach the Mindframe media guidelines. Overall, it aims to reduce stigma and other harms stemming from problematic media portrayals of suicide and mental illness. Using data routinely collected through StigmaWatch from 2017 to 2021, this study aimed to explore the impact of StigmaWatch on confirmed breaches of media guidelines and the trends in media items being reported to StigmaWatch, including by type of illness, breach type, and publication. A total of 1,300 reports of harmful or stigmatizing media portrayals of suicide and mental illness were lodged to StigmaWatch between 2017 and 2021. Of these, 700 (53.8%) were confirmed to be unique breaches of the Mindframe guidelines, and almost half (44.3%) were modified following feedback from StigmaWatch. Most of the confirmed breaches that were reported to StigmaWatch were related to media portrayals of suicide (n = 491, 70.1%). For media portrayals of people with a mental illness (n = 191, 28.9%), portrayals of people with schizophrenia were the most commonly reported and confirmed breaches. The most commonly confirmed breaches of the Mindframe guidelines were as follows: mentioning suicide or self-harm method; using sensationalized language to describe suicide or mental illness; using the term "commit suicide "; and not including help-seeking information. These findings demonstrate the impact of StigmaWatch and have important implications for improving StigmaWatch practices and for future research to better inform these practices.