The framing of depression in the South African print media over a 13-year period (2004-2016): a retrospective study.

Abstract

Abstract Background Depression is the leading cause of mental health-related disease burden globally, yet the symptoms of the disorder are not well-understood and it is stigmatised in South Africa. The way depression is portrayed in the media contributes to an understanding of the symptoms, causes, and treatment of the condition. While research on the framing of depression has been conducted widely in other contexts, our search did not yield any study on media framing of depression in South Africa. Therefore, this study used the framing theory to examine the media framing of depression following the enactment of two mental health policies in South Africa. Methods We examined 152 news stories that covered depression from 21 South African newspapers retrieved from the SABINET – SA Media online archive over a 13-year period (2004–2016). We used the four categories of framing; problems, causes, moral judgements and remedies to conduct deductive and inductive thematic analysis. Results The findings show that most of the news stories had problems as their main frame. The problems identified included the challenge of diagnosing and treating depression, misconceptions about depression, lack of funding for mental health initiatives and shortage of mental health practitioners. Most news stories framed depression as mainly caused by various risk factors, including high rates of crime and violence. Calls were made for increased mental health funding. Improving knowledge of depression in the community and seeking mental health services and support were identified as remedies. Conclusions This study provides an understanding of the framing of issues related to depression in the news media post the enactment of two Mental Health policies. While the two policies have clear provisions that seek to ensure that appropriate care, treatment and rehabilitation are provided to people living with mental health conditions, numerous challenges exist in the health system and society. To overcome these challenges, the study suggests a need for multi-level interventions that target to increase funding, reduce mental health stigma, and develop tailor made mental health promotion and prevention strategies.