Representations of mental health and arts participation in the national and local British press, 2007-2015

We analysed news articles published in national and local British newspapers between 2007 and 2015 to understand 1) how mental health and arts participation were framed and 2) how the relationships between participants in arts initiatives were conceptualised. Using corpus-assisted qualitative frame...

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Main Authors: Atanasova, D., Koteyko, Nelya, Brown, B., Crawford, Paul
Format: Article
Published: SAGE 2017
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/40917/
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author Atanasova, D.
Koteyko, Nelya
Brown, B.
Crawford, Paul
author_facet Atanasova, D.
Koteyko, Nelya
Brown, B.
Crawford, Paul
author_sort Atanasova, D.
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description We analysed news articles published in national and local British newspapers between 2007 and 2015 to understand 1) how mental health and arts participation were framed and 2) how the relationships between participants in arts initiatives were conceptualised. Using corpus-assisted qualitative frame analysis, we identified frames of recovery, stigma and economy. The recovery frame, which emphasised that mental illness can be treated similarly to physical illness, positioned arts participation as a form of therapy that can complement or substitute medication. The stigma frame presented arts participation as a mechanism for challenging social conceptions that mentally ill individuals are incapable of productive work. The economy frame discussed the economic burden of mentally ill individuals and portrayed arts participation as facilitating their return to employment. Using thematic analysis, which paid attention to the representation of social actors, we found that service users were identified as the prime beneficiaries of arts initiatives and arts participation was conceptualised as a way to bring people with mental health issues together. We discuss these findings against existing research on media representations of mental health and the concept of ‘mutual recovery’ and suggest what wider concurrent developments in the areas of mental health and the media may account for the uncovered frames and themes.
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spelling nottingham-409172020-05-04T18:45:58Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/40917/ Representations of mental health and arts participation in the national and local British press, 2007-2015 Atanasova, D. Koteyko, Nelya Brown, B. Crawford, Paul We analysed news articles published in national and local British newspapers between 2007 and 2015 to understand 1) how mental health and arts participation were framed and 2) how the relationships between participants in arts initiatives were conceptualised. Using corpus-assisted qualitative frame analysis, we identified frames of recovery, stigma and economy. The recovery frame, which emphasised that mental illness can be treated similarly to physical illness, positioned arts participation as a form of therapy that can complement or substitute medication. The stigma frame presented arts participation as a mechanism for challenging social conceptions that mentally ill individuals are incapable of productive work. The economy frame discussed the economic burden of mentally ill individuals and portrayed arts participation as facilitating their return to employment. Using thematic analysis, which paid attention to the representation of social actors, we found that service users were identified as the prime beneficiaries of arts initiatives and arts participation was conceptualised as a way to bring people with mental health issues together. We discuss these findings against existing research on media representations of mental health and the concept of ‘mutual recovery’ and suggest what wider concurrent developments in the areas of mental health and the media may account for the uncovered frames and themes. SAGE 2017-05-18 Article PeerReviewed Atanasova, D., Koteyko, Nelya, Brown, B. and Crawford, Paul (2017) Representations of mental health and arts participation in the national and local British press, 2007-2015. Health . ISSN 1461-7196 mental health; recovery; stigma; framing; arts http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1363459317708823 doi:10.1177/1363459317708823 doi:10.1177/1363459317708823
spellingShingle mental health; recovery; stigma; framing; arts
Atanasova, D.
Koteyko, Nelya
Brown, B.
Crawford, Paul
Representations of mental health and arts participation in the national and local British press, 2007-2015
title Representations of mental health and arts participation in the national and local British press, 2007-2015
title_full Representations of mental health and arts participation in the national and local British press, 2007-2015
title_fullStr Representations of mental health and arts participation in the national and local British press, 2007-2015
title_full_unstemmed Representations of mental health and arts participation in the national and local British press, 2007-2015
title_short Representations of mental health and arts participation in the national and local British press, 2007-2015
title_sort representations of mental health and arts participation in the national and local british press, 2007-2015
topic mental health; recovery; stigma; framing; arts
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/40917/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/40917/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/40917/