Comparison of attitudes to media representation of mental illness between journalists and mental health professionals in Russia with German-speaking countries of Switzerland, Germany, and Austria

Background: The media are an important source of information on mental health. They are often implicit in reinforcing negative stereotypes of people with mental health problems. There are no studies in German-speaking countries or Russia on media attitudes to mental health and mental health professionals’ (MHP) attitudes to the media. Aims: This study explored journalists and MHPs attitudes to mental health media reporting in the German speaking countries of Switzerland, Germany, and Austria and in Russia. Methods: A cross-sectional online internet survey, of ten Likert scale statements to ascertain perceptions of stigma, role, and training needs following the STROBE guidance was conducted among journalists and MHPs via their professional organizations. A non-discriminatory exponential snowballing technique leading to non-probability sampling was used. Descriptive statistics, Kruskal-Wallis, and a post hoc Dunn’s multiple comparisons test using Bonferroni adjustment were used to analyze data. Results: A total of 106 German-speaking and 78 Russian journalists, 109 German-speaking, and 82 Russian MHPs fully answered the survey. Journalists felt the media were more balanced about mental health than MHPs, and MHPs were wary of engagement with the media. Small minorities of journalists had engaged with mental health training, similarly few MHPs had engaged with media training, but both groups were interested in doing so in the future. Significant differences between German and Russian speaking respondents were found on a range of issues (e.g. stigmatization, image about psychotherapy, the media/MHPs, and their own role in engaging with the media/MHPs). Russians were more likely to know specialized (media/mental health awareness) training compared to German-speaking MHPs and journalists. Conclusion: There are potential opportunities to engage journalists and MHPs in training about each other’s worlds and reducing stigma toward mental illness through engaging MHPs with the media.