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Emily Davis

Professor Madruga

ENC 1102

16 September 2019

Revised Research Proposal

I will be looking at the portrayal of depression in the movie Cyberbully, the TV

show 13 Reasons Why and other things like different news stories. The discussion of

mental illness falls into the community of mental health professions. However, when

examining media, that is a whole other community of practice. Prior knowledge I have on

depression are things like how it effects everyday activities, the types of thoughts that go

into depression, as well as different ways people act when dealing with depression. I feel

like the media portrays depression in such a negative way and just brushes it off. It is a

major issue that needs to be addressed and fixed. As the media continues to cover stories

involving depression, I feel like it is extremely misinterpreted. As of today, depression is

still being spoken about in a negative way. However, people are slowly starting to realize

that this needs to change. Many people have looked into this issue and found that the

negative discussion of depression results in people not wanting to get help as it is looked

down upon. The people researching my topic make sure to look at news stories, movies,

tv shows as well as magazines and books. One study looked at magazines that were

aimed at American males, The Portrayal of Depression in Magazines Designed for Men.
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These magazines discussed depression and the researcher found that males were less

likely to search for help if depression was not discussed. When depression was discussed

positively, men were more likely to search for help (Clarke, 202).

I am very curious to learn about how the media portrays depression compared to

other mental illnesses. For example, in movies that discuss depression, I am going to

analyze the language and actions taken by the person effected by this mental illness. The

questions I am going to ask myself are things like: How does the movie Cyberbully

portray depression and how would people interpret it? How do media outlets speak about

depression and what type of language is used to discuss it? Specific questions I would

need to ask my data are the following: Is it an accurate representation of depression? Is

there research to back up the specific actions in the movie/tv show? What does the media

keep out of these movies, shows, news articles and news stories to make depression look

worse?

Looking into Communities of Practice, mental health professionals would all fall

into one professional community where they understand their language and the things

being spoken about (Johns, 324). For example, certain words that psychologists,

psychiatrists, and other mental health professionals understand, many other people will

not, just like when Klass explained how doctors have their own language to keep a barrier

between them in the patient (Klass, 344). However, the media outlets would be in a

separate social community since their level of knowledge on mental illnesses is not the

same as the researchers. In Klass’ article, the patient and other people around the medical

field do not know the language until they are actually involved in that profession (Klass,
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345) When answering the question, I hope to inform people of if the media is reliant or

not. Many false stories and movies have been released in relation to mental illnesses and I

feel that they are not portrayed in the correct way as well as being spoken about in such a

negative way. My research involves looking at movies, news stories, social media articles

as well as current events.

When it comes to depression in mass media, the conversations being had about

this topic range. There is a stigma associated with depression and many other mental

illnesses that effect people’s behaviors. This stigma causes many false notions about

depression when it is a very common thing among people. Different situations that

involve depression seem to only show the negative and more dangerous and criminal

sides of depression instead of the fact that many people live normal lives with this mental

illness.

In today’s research, one thing I found that has not been researched or analyzed is

social media and depression. As time goes on, social media is becoming a more popular

source for information. Things like the news, newspapers, magazines, etc. are not as

popular as Twitter, Instagram or Facebook. Although it is a good source of information, it

is not always credible. I feel that since social media targets the younger generations, that

whatever is portrayed or discussed can really influence the way the younger people think.

For example, if depression is discussed in a negative way as if someone who has this

mental illness is weak, the thoughts and information placed into their heads can really

affect the way they handle depression in the future.

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For my research, I plan on paying more attention to social media posts as well as

recent movies and tv shows released and how they portray mental illness. Many different

movies that have to do with depression, show the symptoms and outcomes of this mental

illness as something very detrimental to one’s everyday life. Although that may be true, I

feel that depression and other mental illnesses are exaggerated a little too much. I do not

think that it needs to be brushed off, like it usually is, however, I feel that it portrays

anyone with depression as having a very serious issue that is extremely dangerous to

anyone around them. Even though depression can be a dangerous mental illness, not

every case results in that way. As a result of my research, I hope to shed light on the issue

of the way the media portrays mental illnesses.

When answering my research question, I want to be able to explain what I find and

give an accurate answer on if the media is reliable or not when it comes to how

depression is shown and discussed. To collect my data for my research I am going to

analyze a movie, a tv show and various different news articles/news stories. In total, I

will be looking at 4 different pieces of data. I will be looking at the movie Cyberbully,

one or two episodes of the TV show 13 Reasons Why, one news article and one news

story. When picking these pieces of data, I plan on basing it off of it discusses depression

as well as if there is a professional that reviewed it or was involved in writing it. The

reason I chose to analyze this amount was because of the plethora of movies, shows and

news articles that are written and based on depression. I feel like it would be extremely

overwhelming to examine an entirety of a tv show, multiple movies and news articles and

I would need more time in order to do that. I found a few sources that have looked at
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similar things involving mental illnesses and have cited them throughout my research

proposal.

For my theoretical framework I will be using John’s communities of practice.

Klass was a great example of the issues that could rise in communities of practice. For

example, she discusses the issues one would face in the medical field not knowing the

language that a doctor or physician would know (Klass). For my research I plan on

comparing the language used in movies and tv shows and the way mental professionals

discuss the topic. I will also examine how the media uses certain words or phrases to

describe depression. I will be relying on Klass’ example because it very closely relates to

how certain words and situations pertaining to depression could be easily misinterpreted.

For instance, in Klass’ example, she explains how certain words, phrases or abbreviations

are used to cover up what the doctor is saying so the patient does not panic or worry

(Klass). In today’s world, there are many things that movies, TV shows and news outlet

say that could easily cause panic and for some reason, these things seem to make

depression look worse and cause this mental illness to look dangerous. Data that I will be

using is the movie Cyberbully, two or three episodes from the TV show 13 Reasons Why,

a news article pertaining to depression as well as a few articles that have done this type of

study before. I believe that the movie and the tv show will connect very closely to each

other because they are both aimed at young adult audiences and both portray the same

mental illness that are caused by the same things. I feel that the news articles I find will

also connect as they are more informative sources for the public. With my framework in

mind, I plan to analyze the language used. For example, in the movie or tv show, I plan
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on looking at the different words or phrases used by the character that has depression. I

feel that within entertainment media like this, that there will be many consistencies with

the language and words used. I also plan to analyze the word choice used by news outlets

and articles. I will also look into the titles used to see if they have anything to do with

how depression could possibly be portrayed and looked down upon. I hope to find that

language used is geared more towards making depression look dangerous. However, I

feel that I will find that the language used is not direct and could very easily be

misinterpreted.
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Works Cited:

Johns, Ann M. Discourse Communities and Communities of Practice. Cambridge

University Press, 1997.

Klass, Perri. “Learning the Language.” Composing Knowledge: Readings for

College Writers. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2007. Print.

Clarke, Juanne N. “The Portrayal of Depression in Magazines Designed for Men

(2000-2007).” International Journal of Men's Health, vol. 8, no. 3, 2009, pp. 202–212.,

doi:10.3149/jmh.0803.202.

Stuart, Heather. “Media Portrayal of Mental Illness and Its Treatments.” CNS

Drugs, vol. 20, no. 2, 2006, pp. 99–106., doi:10.2165/00023210-200620020-00002.

Pirkis, Jane, and Warwick Blood. “Suicide and the Media.” Suicide and the Media,

22, no. (4), ser. 155-162, 2001. 155-162.

Safran, Stephen P. “Disability Portrayal in Film: Reflecting the Past, Directing the

Future.” Exceptional Children, vol. 64, no. 2, 1998, pp. 227–238.,

doi:10.1177/001440299806400206.

Fried, Eiko I., et al. “What Are 'Good' Depression Symptoms? Comparing the Centrality of

DSM and Non-DSM Symptoms of Depression in a Network Analysis.” Journal of Affective

Disorders, vol. 189, 2016, pp. 314–320., doi:10.1016/j.jad.2015.09.005.

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Francis, Catherine, et al. “Portrayal of Depression and Other Mental Illnesses in Australian

Nonfiction Media.” Journal of Community Psychology, vol. 33, no. 3, 2005, pp. 283–297.,

doi:10.1002/jcop.20050.