--Original published at David's Blog
For our third and final spotlight blog post I decided to do my topic on mental illness in tv and how it turns it into entertainment. We are to compare different articles on mental illness in tv and discuss weather or not it is ethical or not. Before starting this blog post I am sort of on the edge and I am not to sure if it is ethical or not.
“Some are less offensive than others, but overall they tend to highlight examples of low or no insight, such as a client who cannot recognize that a food item is rotten, and they zoom in on squalor.” stated by Everyday Health. One of the biggest problems with mental health tv shows is how they only look at the worse cases. This is done since viewers are more likely to view shows with more odd or strange people with these illness. By doing this it can misinform the public on on the mental illness portrayed in the show.
“media should ‘desist from using mental health problems to entertain and shock the public.'” written by Anna Almendrala. One of the other big reasons on why these tv shows are not ethical is how it exploits peoples personal problems. This alone can be fine but the producers are doing it so they can get more views on their shows.
“In this case, the families or individuals have to agree to the ‘intervention’ and work with the organizers.” stated by Movie Rewind. This is one of the up sides to the television shows. They bring in teams and experts to get the people with the mental illness help. The teams that come in do their best to help people turn their lives around for the better. Having a whole group of people helping to turn someones life around can do so much good in their lives, sometimes in the show they even do check ups on past people to see how they are doing.
“These realistic depictions of mental illness can be deeply helpful to those who suffer at home.” written by By showing these mental illness to the general public it can help people more aware of the illness. By making the public aware of the illness it can also help others see if they may have a mental illness of their own. This can be both good and bad. If a show gives false info and bad symptoms on the illness audience members can do a false diagnostic. But if the info is portrayed correctly it can help people do accurate self diagnostics and the audience will be more likely to seek help from professionals.
After looking at all the articles on mental illness in tvI was able to form a better opinion on weather it was ethical or not. Personally I think I can be good and bad. If the person that is focused on in the show give consent to filming I think it can be very beneficial for the general audience to learn more about certain illness. We have to be carful though when producing shows like hoarders they need to include correct and accurate information for the public. If that can be do those tv shows can be both ethical and beneficial.
Citations
- Almendrala, Anna. “Hoarding Reality Shows Might Do More Harm Than Good.” HuffPost, HuffPost, 17 June 2015, http://www.huffpost.com/entry/hoarding-reality-shows_n_7605804.
- “Does Reality TV Accurately Portray Hoarding?” Stroke Center – EverydayHealth.com, Ziff Davis, LLC, 10 Jan. 2014, http://www.everydayhealth.com/g00/anxiety-disorders/experts-does-tv-accurately-portray-hoarding.aspx?i10c.encReferrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8=&i10c.ua=1&i10c.dv=20.
- “TV Hoarding Shows – A Compare & Contrast.” Movie Rewind, 20 May 2012, movierewind.com/2010/tv-hoarding-shows-a-compare-contrast/.
- ZEMLER, EMILY. “How TV Is Slowly Getting Mental Health Right.” ELLE, ELLE, 16 Feb. 2018, http://www.elle.com/uk/life-and-culture/culture/longform/a38623/tv-mental-health-bojack-13-reasons-why/.