More than 76% of Our Turn to Speak participants reported experiencing some level of stigma or discrimination in accessing or engaging with mass media during the last 12 months. Of the 422 participants who selected the mass media as one of their top three most affected life domains, 69.9% of participants reported ‘frequent’ or ‘very frequent’ experiences of stigma and discrimination in this area. Across all types of stigma (experiences, anticipated and withdrawal from opportunity), news media was consistently rated as being more problematic than entertainment or creative media. "Often concerns about stigma are unfortunately dismissed as overreactions or being too sensitive. Depiction of mental illness in the media is one of the biggest contributors to my reluctance to share my personal experiences." – Our Turn to Speak participant, Western Australia On average, 89.9% of participants said they had been exposed to stigmatising or discriminatory mass media content. On average, 87.6% of participants said they anticipated being exposed to stigmatising or discriminatory mass media content. On average, 63.6% of participants said they had stopped themselves from accessing or engaging with mass media content because of stigma about mental health issues. 58.8% of participants said they had seen, read or heard entertainment or creative media that portrayed people who live with mental health issues in a positive way. Explore the findings in more detail
