The Impact of Culture on How the Media Portray ADHD to the Lay Public

The biomedical model sees disorders and diseases as deviations from the norm and medical approaches as the only possible treatment (via) ignoring psychological and social variables that are "unquestionably important" (via). According to various analyses of newspapers, in the UK, the psychosocial model of ADHD is dominant while in the US, the biomedical model is stressed. In France, there is a rather psychodynamic understanding of the disorder and whenever biomedical aspects prevail, they are presented or discussed in a more nuanced way (Ponnou & Gonnon, 2017). This, again, has an impact on how ADHD is seen and approached.



- Ponnou, S. & Gonnon, F. (2017). How French media have portrayed ADHD to the lay public and to social workers. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Health and Well-being, link
- photograph by Henri Cartier Bresson via

The Blonde Cave Dweller: Two Explorers, Similar Experiences, Different Media Coverage.

There have been several experiments to study the effects of isolation on humans (biological rhythms, eating and sleeping patterns, etc.), some of them carried out in caves, and one of them in the French Alps in 1965. That time, Antoine Senni (male record of 126 days) and Josie Laures (female record of 88 days) spent a long time in different caves, each in complete isolation and loneliness (via and via).



While their experiences were rather similar, media coverage made a difference. Antoine Senni became "the forgotten man", media focused on "pretty Josy Laures" who "got all the publicity". In an article, they were described as "a blonde, dark-eyed girl of 26 and a 35-year-old furniture". manufacturer." One article was titled "Blonde Cave Dweller Out of Hospital". A video news report comes to the conclusion: "If the resulting data helps astronauts, Josie will be proud to have been a guinea pig in space exploration. Her boyfriends hope it’ll be for the last time." (via)

After Laures spent some time in Paris getting medical tests, the Tribune reported that she had “fully recovered from her ordeal, tho she has not yet lost extra weight she put on while in the cave.” And if you’re thinking “Well, that’s rude, but maybe it’s relevant, since the experiment was to test the physical and mental effects of isolation,” another article reveals that the “extra weight” she put on was a mere four pounds. No word on the fluctuation of Senni’s weight in the cave.

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photograph via

Media and the Muslim Terrorist

Terrorist attacks receive press coverage. There is, however, a disparity in media coverage based on the perpetrators' religion as the following figures clearly show: an average of 15 headlines if the attack is carried out by a non-Muslim vs 105 headlines if it is committed by a Muslim extremist. In other words, terrorist attacks committed by Muslims receive 357% more press coverage (via).

Controlling for target type, fatalities, and being arrested, attacks by Muslim perpetrators received, on average, 357% more coverage than other attacks. Our results are robust against a number of counterarguments. The disparities in news coverage of attacks based on the perpetrator’s religion may explain why members of the public tend to fear the “Muslim terrorist” while ignoring other threats. More representative coverage could help to bring public perception in line with reality.
Kearns et al., 2017

Between 2008 and 2016, rightwing terrorists committed twice as many attacks as Muslim extremists (via), however, we seem to mainly remember the ones committed by the latter. And this is no coincidence. According to a recent study, media are rather reluctant to label far-right attackers as terrorists; Islamist extremists are three times more likely to be called terrorists (via). Media coverage plays a crucial role in shaping our perception of social groups.

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- Kearns, E. M., Betus, A. E. & Lemieux, A. F. (2017). Why Do Some Terrorist Attacks Receive More Media Attention Than Others? Justice Quarterly, 36(6), 985-1022.
- photograph via

"We play for a nation that doesn't even know our names." Women Playing Football

The first Women's World Cup was held in Italy in 1970, a decade that was characterised by several countries lifting their ban on women's football and establishing new teams across Europe and North America (via). Currently, the eight edition of FIFA Women's World Cup is being hosted in France (via). Generally speaking, it surely does not get the media coverage the FIFA (Mens') World Cup gets but in Britain, it is attracting a bigger audience than cricket (via).



Before 1921, women's football flourished in England with about 150 women's teams whose matches "pulled bigger crowds than most men's games". Then women were banned from playing football on pitches with spectator facilities, i.e. professional stadiums, since the sport was "quite unsuitable for females". This ban was lifted in 1971 (via), the same year women's football "hit the big time" in Mexico, "a success because the organisers did not assume it would be a commercial or sporting failure. It was sold and promoted as football tournament, one that just happened to feature women" (via).

Women's participation in football also provides a good example of the mutual ripple effect that can exist between a sport's level of television coverage and its increasing uptake in the community. Since the 2011 World Cup, media coverage of international women's football fixtures has steadily gained traction – not least on the back of the French team's commendable performances, which have subsequently pulled in higher audiences. Alongside these television and sports performances, the number of female members of football clubs has soared since the 2010-2011 season (+90%).
Conseil Supérieur de l'Audiovisuel, 2017:10

Here is a strong message of female empowerment (Germany's Women's World Cup advert):



photograph (French team, 1979, photo credit: AFP/CARL FOURIE) via 

The Writers Lab

Meryl Streep, together with New York Women in Film and Television and other female filmmakers, helped fund a screenwriting lab for female writers over 40 to bring in more diverse writers and more female roles on screen (via). As figures clearly show, age discrimination in Hollywood (and not only there) is worse for women and things do not seem to get better.

"The Writers Lab is dedicated to developing narrative feature screenplays written by women over the age of 40. We feel it is critical to nurture the voices of mature women that have not been heard and are in danger of being lost entirely. We look forward to a new landscape where the female narrative is in equal proportion to the male narrative, sharing our stories to strengthen our ties to one another and empower younger generations." The Writers Lab

During the 2013-14 TV season, women composed 29% of employed TV writers, a decline from 30.5% in the 2011-12 season. Of the top 250 US-films, only 10% are female screenwriters. When women are not represented behind the scene, they are not represented on screen, or - if they are - often in limited stereotypical ways. Women over 40, for instance, are almost non-existent or "often stale stereotypes". According to director and casting director Risa Bramon Garcia, "The problem happens when writers and producers don't see women as being sexual after 40 - by sexual I mean complex human beings who are attractive and appealing, vital and powerful, in their 40s and 50s and beyond." (via).

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According to a study conducted by the Writers Guild of America, West, "(w)omen and minorites have actually lost ground as compared to their white male counterparts". Minority writers saw a 7% decline, employment of female writers fell 5%. Concerning writers in general, no matter which gender, the study came to the conclusion:

“Although writers over 40 continued to claim a majority of all staff writer positions, data from the most recent TV season show that their employment prospects drop dramatically after age 50. Such stark statistics continue to illustrate that the entertainment industry remains a glaringly unlevel playing field.” (via)

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photographs of Meryl Streep via and via and via

Idris Elba's Keynote Speech to Parliament on Diversity in the Media

Thanks for such a warm welcome. I could almost feel at home… In fact we’re not far from where I grew up in East London, but as a young man, I never thought I’d come here. In fact as an older man, I never thought I’d come here. But Oona invited me to speak here today. You know what she's like, she's a bit obsessed with diversity. I told her to get out more, & stop watching TV. Thing is, when you get out more, you see there's a disconnect between the real world & TV world. People in the TV world often aren't the same as people in the real world. And there’s an even bigger gap between people who make TV, and people who watch TV. I should know, I live in the TV world. And although there's a lot of reality TV, TV hasn't caught up with reality. Change is coming, but it's taking its sweet time.



Why change?
1. Because the TV world helps SHAPE the real world. It’s also a window on our world. But when we look out the window, none of us live in Downton Abbey.
2. Because the creative industries are the foundation of Britain's future economy. You guys want to safeguard Britain's economy, right? That's your job?
3. If you want to safeguard the economy, you have to safeguard the Creative Industries; and they rely on TALENT. Talent is our lifeblood - we can't afford to WASTE it, or give it away. But when you don't reflect the real world, too much talent is trashed. Talent is everywhere, opportunity isn't. And talent can’t reach opportunity. Especially on our small island – that’s why British talent gets exported all over the world. We haven’t done enough to nurture our diverse talent. But before I go any further I want to say something really important:

I'm not here to talk about black people; I’m here to talk about diversity. Diversity in the modern world is more than just skin colour. - it’s gender, age, disability, sexual orientation, social background, and - most important of all, as far as I’m concerned – diversity of thought. Because if you have genuine diversity of thought among people making TV & film, then you won’t accidentally shut out any of the groups I just mentioned. Anyway, on the whole, I don’t think of myself as just a ‘black actor’. I’m an actor, not a number. Just like anyone else. (...)



None of us are just one flavour or one colour. If we were, we’d be one- dimensional. And that’s what used to drive me mad as an up and coming actor. My agent and I, we’d get scripts and we were always asked to read the “black male” character. Or “the athletic type.” And that was just Crimewatch… But when a script called for a “black male”, it wasn’t describing a character. It was a describing a skin colour. A white man - or a caucasian - was described as “a man with a twinkle in his eye”. My eyes may be dark, but they definitely twinkle! (Ask the Mrs…) And I was like “I wanna play the character with a twinkle in his eyes!” So I got to a certain point in my career, and I saw that glass ceiling; I was very close to hitting my forehead on it. I was busy, I was getting lots of work, but I realised I could only play so many “best friends” or “gang leaders”. I knew I wasn’t going to land a lead role. I knew there wasn’t enough imagination in the industry for me to be seen as a lead. (...)

What all this taught me, is too often people get locked inside boxes. And it’s not a great place to be. Ask women, they’ll say the same thing. Or disabled people. Or gay people. Or any number of under-represented groups. So today I’m asking the TV & film industry to think outside the box, and to GET outside the box. This isn’t a speech about race, this is a speech about imagination. Diversity of thought. Thankfully in our country, we’re free to say what we want. But we’re not as free as we think, because our imagination isn’t that free. We can’t help putting people inside boxes, it’s a national pastime… Funny thing is, it’s not good for the people locked in the box; but it’s also not good for the people deciding what’s ON the box. Audiences don’t want to see caricatures Because the point about a caricature is this: you’ve seen it all before. So I want our incredibly creative and successful TV industry to be more imaginative with the cultural exports we send around the world. (...)



I agreed to speak in Parliament today, because I want to highlight the important discussion taking place tomorrow The CEOs of Channel 4, ITV, and the BBC, are just some of those industry leaders meeting to discuss diversity. And Channel 4’s research for the conference is really interesting. The headline finding is that British TV is awash with low-level sexism. The interesting comparison, is that the same figure for low-level racism was only a tenth of that. This means women on TV are 10 times more likely to be treated negatively than black people on TV. That’s crazy, right? I’m not saying you expect black people to be treated worse than women (although God help black women) But as Viola Davies said last year when she became the first-ever black woman to win an Emmy for drama, “you can’t win an Emmy for a role that’s never been written.” That’s why we need more imagination from our directors, our producers, our casting directors, our writers - especially our writers. So I’m just saying we need to be more aware. (...)

Nelson Mandela said “anything difficult always seems impossible until it’s done.” But the good news is, we’re not trying to put a man on the moon. We’re just trying to redesign the face of British TV. And because British TV helps shape our world, and is the window onto our world, this is a debate for everyone. And yes, let’s make our cultural empire even more successful than our military empire. I'll leave you with this thought: I don't want to give away any spoilers, but in the new Star Wars film, isn't it amazing the princess grows up to be a General??! Seriously: let that sink in: the princess grows up to be a General! That's all I'm asking for: - some proper imagination, - untold stories - the road less travelled Let's think outside the box. In fact let's smash the box. Given we're in London let's "MASH the box." G'wan, mash it up! Lords, Ladies and gentlemen, officers of the Empire, and any princesses, Thank you for listening!

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- speech excerpts via Channel4; speech on YouTube: LISTEN
- photographs via and via and via

Selecting Headlines, Constructing Reality

More than 200.000 crimes are reported to the police in Vienna every year, less than 2.000 of them are communicated to media. According to an analysis of 3.726 incidents passed to media by the police in 2013 and 2014, there seems to be a pattern in the selection of what is to be reported and what not. While robbery is number one on the list, only every 43rd rape is communicated to media which creates a distortion of reality. The nonrendering of assistance to persons in danger and racist violence are non-existent in media although being reported to the police. At the same time, almost every single robbery or assault in connection with jewellers, banks or taxi drivers is passed to journalists. Drug-related crime, number six on the list, is communicated to journalists every second day. The analysis also shows a correlation between the amount of incidents reported to the press and the districts in which they happen.
Selections do have an impact on our conception of reality and they are also shaped by what the police reports. After all, between 80 and 90% of all the crimes we read about were originally reported by the police (via).



photograph by William Helburn (1960) via

The Italian Womaniser

Media (particularly non-Italian media) often presented Italian actor Marcello Mastroianni (1924-1996) as a "Latin Lover", a label Mastroianni found highly unpleasant. He pointed out that he had played an impotent man, a pregnant man, a homosexual man ... and nevertheless journalists continued to describe him as a Latin Lover. Mastroianni did not get rid of this label although most of his roles on screen did not conform to this image. The very reason why has probably little to do with Mastroianni himself and more to do with the international image of Italian masculinity - a product of popular culture and the imagined embodiment of the rather uncivilised Latino whose exotic passion contrasts with the audience's more civilised society (Reich, 2004).



Stereotypes are pictures in our head that can simplify, distort, and do injury to meaning. They are also useful devices for visual communicators as they are easily understood (Dente Ross & Lester, 2011). And a fascinating effect of stereotypes is that once we have the stereotypical background knowledge we see them even when they are not portrayed.

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- Dente Ross, S. & Lester, P. M. (2011) Images that injure: Pictorial stereotypes in the media. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO
- Reich, J. (2004) Beyond the Latin Lover: Marcello Mastroianni, Masculinity, and Italian Cinema. Bloomington: Indiana University Press

- photograph via

Prime Time

Television has an entertainment function, but not only. Apart from information and education, for new immigrants it can provide a first window to the new home country and is therefore discussed in the context of integration and participation. Television's power to combine sight and sound makes the medium particularly attractive for those who are not yet fluent in the language. A survey among new Canadians, for instance, showed that many of them regarded television as a language tutor and cultural guide. In the second generation, however, television is seen as a means to retain their cultural heritage and multicultural programming is used when available (Solutions Research Group, 2003).

 

In Canada, the representation of diversity in media is understood to be crucial for a healthy civil society since Canada's population is multicultural. Media present social values that possibly influence attitudes about culture, disability, gender, sexual orientation, religion, etc. An analysis of popular Canadian primetime television dramas came to the conclusion that religious stereotypes and traditional gender roles are reinforced, that non-White main characters and characters with differing levels of physical ability are absent and that there is a growing visibility for non-stereotypical portrayals and constructions of queer characters (Media Action Media, 2010).



Media Action Media (2010) Representations of Diversity in Canadian Television Entertainment Programming: Case Studies (via)
Solutions Research Group (2003) Cultural Diversity on Television. Phase IV Research - Focus Group. December 2003 (via)

Photos: astronaut watching TV via and Panasonic/National Flying Saucer also known as The Eyeball orignally TR-005 Orbitel (with the advertising slogan "Attention, Earth People.") via