Being an able bodied, mentally competent citizen of this country besides being a hard core Nationalist, raised with the undying admiration for Muhammad Ali Jinnah, I feel compelled to write these words.
Writing, for me, has become a means towards sanity, in this maddening chaos and media glare. Talk’s shows are in abundance, telecasting gibberish, all day long. You have mental health experts, sitting along the culinary experts in a show sponsored by cooking oil, as if to provide a recipe for both. Doom and gloom stories are all around the place, as if land has stopped giving yield, cattle has stopped producing milk, cotton looms are without threads, market is without fruits, Natural Gas reservoirs have depleted, mothers have stopped giving birth to live-new born, God has forsaken us – those who were marginalized and separated on His behalf, from the rest of the continent. Nothing of this sort has happened. Why then we have hue and cries on what is not going write?
Glaring example of this is insensitivity of media towards mental health issue. If one scans a newspaper in the morning, one is struck by the fact that nothing positive is reported. You see the pictures of tortured, charcoaled bodies, set on fire by angry mob. You see rioting youth, raising mayhem on power breakdown. Why are we fixated on killings, robbery and rape? Are there no news of hope, friendship, sacrifice and love? Why are we so addicted to bad things in life? All this is a cognitive distortion of our community, which journalists seem to share. Collectively, we are the cause of what goes on among us; we should be the impetus of change, too.
Those committed to journalism understand the sanctity of written word. After few publications, one becomes well aware of sensitivities required in public domain. Time, maturity and experience teach an individual the finis of self expression. However, the impact of one’s word is proportional to his social-fabric awareness. Oblivion to this background leads to expression of empty words and phrases, which have no impact besides the passing day, a mere ripple in the ocean of words. Most of what is published in our daily news is the same – a ripple of words – an expression of non-entity.
Media seems to play a major role in sensationalizing the mental health issues. This is most pronounced in case of suicide. Suicide is a tragic outcome of mental illnesses, which is highlighted in such a way that it seems to have a promotional effect, rather then a deterrent one. This is akin to tarnishing the fabric of society.
People with mental illnesses are portrayed as dangerous and unpredictable. This perception is often inflamed by media accounts of crime, although statistics don’t bear out a connection between mental illness and violence. Some people also believe that those with mental illness are less competent, unable to work, should be institutionalized or will never get better.
The electronic media, as a reflection of society, has done much to sustain a distorted view of mental illness. Television or movie characters that are aggressive, dangerous and unpredictable can have their behaviour attributed to a mental illness. Mental illness also has not received the sensitive media coverage that other illnesses have been given. We are surrounded by stereotypes, popular movies talk about killers who are “psychos,” and news coverage of mental illness only when it related to violence. These representations and the use of discriminatory language distort the public’s view and reinforce inaccuracies about mental illness.
Some mental illnesses are more stigmatized than others. Schizophrenia, for instance, is more highly stigmatized than depression is. It’s routinely mocked and misrepresented and is less likely to generate compassion. Depression, on the other hand, is less often ridiculed, perhaps because of its ubiquitous presence or media advertisement of antidepressant medications has made the disorder more mainstream, thus more acceptable.
Almost 60 years have passed since the inception of independent media by the founding father of Nation – Mohammad Ali Jinnah. Instead of passing through years of maturity, media seems to have acquired senescence. Where would it go next?
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