The Departure Between Objective World And Media Reality: The Research On Representation Of Depression Patients By Media

The depression has been emerged as a significant social problem in 21st century both at home and abroad. There are about 30 million patients with depression over the country. As expected by Global Burden of Disease (GBD), in 2020, the depression will become the second critical disease following to the cardiovascular disease in China. The depression will not only bring along the physical and psychological pains for the patients, but also result in heavy social and economic burden. Mass media is a pervasive health communication channel. The representation of a disease by media largely determines the recognition and attitude towards the disease or patients. Therefore, the role of media in health communication of depression shouldn't be ignored. The discussion on the present reports of depression and patients by the domestic mainstream media and the analysis on the underlying reasons of the present situation of reports of depression based upon news production will not only be regarded as the theoretic supplement of the health communication, but also the important references for the practical operation of the journalists.Firstly, based on the contents analysis, the essay discusses the general situation and development of depression reports by People's Daily, The Beijing News and Health News during six years from January 1,2004 to December 31,2009. The we get a conclusion:the depression topic created by the media in China has been on the road from the'initial era'to the'science era', but still leaving a large distance to the 'human era'and'political era'. In Chapter 3, this paper studies the image representation of the depression patients by the domestic newspaper presently. Generally speaking, under the representation by the media, the negative and suffering image of the depression patients occupy the leading position, while the'positive image'and'the image to be cared'are marginal. Based on this, the author also discusses the influence of representation by different media on the construction of the social identity of depression patients. In Chapter 4 titled as'Media Reality and Objective Reality', via the cognitive survey of the audiences'image of depression patients and the analysis on the image of depression patients from the doctors, the author finds that there are obvious differences between the image of the depression patients constructed by the media and the one in reality. Under the construction by the media, the depression patients are distinctly differed and otherized. Chapter 5 is the final purpose and stay points of the essay. In this chapter, the author discusses the various influence factors and mechanism of the news production of depression. The analysis will be taken from four aspects, as journalists'personal factor, media organization's professional regulations, influence factors from external power and audiences'recognition of depression, in order to find out all reasons of the departure between the'media reality'and'objective reality'. Compared with the simple criticism and suggestions, such discussion will be more revelatory and promotive for the health communication of the depression by the domestic media.