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Media
The media has a central role in raising awareness about issues that are important in people's lives and our society. We want to help more readers, journalists and communications professionals to be advocates for mental health issues, to encourage and promote better coverage, and to support people affected by mental health problems who want to tell their story.
What we are doing
What's the Story?
Called What's the Story?, the handbook is packed with useful facts, figures and contacts. It is designed to help you do your job when covering these stories, whether you’re a print, broadcast or magazine journalist.
The handbook also contains tips on how best to avoid causing needless offence - or worse - to your many readers and viewers affected by mental health problems. They apply whether you are covering a murder, a suicide or in fact wherever mental health crops up in the news, which can be pretty much anywhere. Our aim is to help you cover these stories properly and, at the same time, improve public understanding and avoid adding to the problems faced by people with mental health problems.
For more information and to find out how you can get your copy of the handbook, visit the What's the Story? website.
Shift Speakers' Bureau
The Shift Speakers' Bureau is a bank of people who have mental health problems who want to speak out about their experiences to the media.The bureau is a one-stop-shop for journalists wanting to hear extraordinary, real-life stories of people from all walks of life. Their accounts will also help challenge the myths and stereotypes about mental illness by giving people with mental health problems a voice.Find out more about the Shift Speakers' Bureau.
Shift Media Monitor
The Shift Media Monitor service encourages people to make contact with journalists, editors and programme makers, explaining to them how their coverage of mental health issues makes people feel.Find out more about the Shift Media Monitor service.
Research
Making Drama out of a CrisisShift commissioned a study examining portrayals of mental illness in prime-time television drama.
Making Drama out of a Crisis looks at three months of TV drama broadcast between 4pm and 11pm on UK terrestrial channels during 2010. Researchers found 74 episodes from 34 different programmes that contained mental illness-related storylines.
Researchers also spoke to programme makers and members of the public - both with and without personal experience of mental health problems - about protrayals of mental illness in TV drama.
The report aims to encourage writers, producers, directors and commissioners of television drama to enter into a debate about these issues and how they portray mental illness on TV. Mental health charities, experts and people with mental health problems are keen to join this discussion.
Both summary and full versions of the report can be downloaded from our research page.
Mind Over Matter
Mind Over Matter is a series of research reports commissioned by Shift that look at how the media covers mental health issues.
Focus groups looking at the reporting of violence
In order to better understand how the media shapes public understanding of mental illness - and in particular fears about links with violence - Shift commissioned researchers to undertake fifteen focus groups with the general public and people with mental health problems and carers.
Find out more about these projects and other research work commissioned by Shift
How you can get involved
Become a Shift Media MonitorLet us know if you see or hear a media item that covers mental health in a particularly good or bad way.
Subscribe to Media Monitor alerts to be told of good or bad reporting.
Find out the most effective ways of having your comments to the media heard.
Join the Shift Media Network
Share information, resources and advice with others using the Shift Media Network.
Masthead photo by sparktography from Flickr. Used under a Creative Commons licence.
