Reporting on mental health difficulties, mental illness and suicide: Journalists’ accounts of the challenges

Media depictions of mental health difficulties and suicide are an important element in shaping how the public understands the issues and how relevant agencies devise strategies to advocate and reduce stigma. The role of the media in the production and reproduction of stereotypical portrayals of mental health difficulties and suicide has been of concern for a number of decades. However, relatively little research attention has been paid to date to the process through which stories on mental illness and suicide are produced by journalists. This article aims to contribute to that analysis by focusing on Irish journalists’ experiences of and insights into the challenges underpinning reporting on mental health difficulties and suicide. Despite some generic and platform differences, journalists noted that their output was shaped by a number of factors, which included, sensitivity to the topic of suicide; care for families; balancing public and private interests; challenges to reporting facts, finding appropriate sources and meeting the needs of media platforms; interpreting guidelines on reporting and the discovery of the relative absence of mental illness stories. Understanding how journalists deal with these challenges can help them and advocacy agencies to address these challenges and thereby improve the nature of coverage of mental health difficulties and suicide in media output.