Television Drama- Disibility

Television Drama is definatly a huge influence on shapeing public attitudes towards mental illness.
It still seems to be that even in the 21st century this subject is still shrouded in ignorance and misunderstanding. The article I am looking at is asking whether or not it is the job of the industry to challenge these popular 'myths' as they like to call them. I believe it is needed to be broadcasted across television due to the high amount of people who sit there and will watch it. People need to know and understand to stop predjudice and intolerance towards disibility and rare cases among these that people do not get to see everyday. I believe things such as schizophrenia that has been summond to a character in one of Britans well known soaps 'Hollyoaks' was a must see and a brilliant take into understanding the illness, something people are not so aware of and is not something you can see just by looking at a person like other disabilitys can be. It shows how an illness can effect not only the person but also alot of people around them. Television Dramas have been using disabled characters alot more i think since the makeing of doctumentarys looking into the lives and conditions of these people. I think that anyway.

Key Finding's from the article;

- 63% of the references in dialogue were pejorative, flippant or unsympathetic; terms included 'crackpot', 'a sad little psyco, 'basket case', 'where did you get her from, Care in the community/' and 'he was looney tunes'.
- 45% of programmes featuring mental illness storylines portrayed people with mental health problems as dangerous. For example bipolar Karen Mcguire in Shameless on channel 4 attacks her partner in a fit of rage as she is about to be sectioned.
- 45% of programmes had sympathetic representations. For example, in eastenders the market stall manager gives Stacey her stall back after her friend becca pretends to be a council lawyer and treatens to take him to court for discrimination on grounds of her mental ill-health.

To conclude;

Television drama has enormous potential to challenge stigma and improve public understanding witness the huge increase in calls to bipolar helplines on the back of the stacey storyline in eastenders.  Unsympathetic portrayals and references to mental health still predominate. The over-representation of protrayals of violence with nearly half of programmes suggesting people with mental health problems pose a threat, contributes only 17% of newspaper articles imply this, suggesting they may inface paint a less unrealistic picture of mental illness then tv drama.  Mental health professionals, charities and people affected by mental illness are all keen to work with the industry to help create authentic programmes rooted in reality.