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Stigmatization of mental disorders in digital news audience: A case study of plane crash news
Author(s)
Date Issued
2015
ISSN
2472-0658
Citation
Lee, K. L. (2015). Stigmatization of mental disorders in digital news audience: A case study of plane crash news. In Snyder, J. (Ed.). Proceedings of the 80th annual conference. 80th Association for Business Communication (ABC) Annual International Conference, Seattle, WA, USA. Association for Business Communication.
Type
Conference Paper
Abstract
Traditional mass media have been regarded as one of the most critical socializing agents which stigmatize mental disorders, but not many studies have been conducted to investigate the role of new media in this regard. This exploratory study looked into the ways the digital news audience of an online newspaper portrayed depression through commenting on a series of a plane crash news, and applied Warranting Theory to examine the influences of the discussions on the attitudes of other audience towards mental disorders. Four commonly-held beliefs associated with depression were found in the discussions, but those beliefs demonstrated discrepancies from clinical diagnostic criteria for depression,
implying the beliefs were far from accurate. Additionally, results substantiated the warranting values of the comments, showing other audience gave credence to and tended to endorse the comments although the comments were not scientifically supported. Lastly, detrimental effects of stigmatization found online and implications were discussed.
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