[ecrea] New Book: Mediating Mental Health: Contexts, Debates and Analysis

For those teaching about genre, reception, applied theatre and television practices, as well as representations of health and disability, this book will be of interest.

‘Mediating Mental Health: Contexts, Debates and Analysis’ by Michael Birch (Ashgate 2012)

http://ashgate.com/default.aspx?page=637&calcTitle=1&pageSubject=317&title_id=8260&edition_id=11536&lang=en

“Mike Birch has accomplished one of the most qualitatively rigorous studies of media representations of mental health that has ever been attempted. It embraces the perspectives of all major stake-holders, and yields profound and practical insights into mediated constructions of stigma.”
—Oliver Boyd-Barrett, Bowling Green State University

“Michael Birch’s compelling work questions the mental health of a society, rather than that of those it defines as unhealthy. He demonstrates that modes of representation of mental health in Britain in particular, offer insights into the conventions underlying cultural practices and institutions. Drawing upon examples of ethnographic experiments derived from applied television and theatre practices, Birch shows masterfully that it is within representations as locations of power that ‘disability’ is imagined, enforced and contested”
—Awam Amkpa, New York University and author of Theatre and Postcolonial Desires

Mediating Mental Health offers a detailed critical analysis of the representation of mental health conditions across a range of fictional and factual genres in film, television and radio, thus presenting an understanding of the ways in which media forms construct a mental health space, portray the related realities and identities, organize meaning about mental health through language, and addresses audiences in respect of a range of mental health issues.

 “Mike Birch offers an extensive, academically robust and thought provoking analysis of mental health mediation. Historically and contextually situated, it is an excellent critical inquiry into the nature of these powerful and often negative discursive practices. The text would be a valuable resource to many readers, particularly for those interested in mental health, media studies, discourse analysis and policy development.”
—James Trueman, Anglia Ruskin University, UK

Contents: Foreword; Preface; A note about language and mental health; Introduction; Mediating mental health; Critical contexts; Historical contexts for popular meanings of ‘madness.’ An outline of the case studies; Phase one genre studies 1: film; Phase one genre studies 2: news and documentary; Phase one genre studies 3: drama; Phase two, part 1: the community project: reception study; Phase two, part 2: the community project: production study: exploring change: approach, alternative images and practices Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.

Thanks for reading and apologies for cross-listing

Mike


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