CALL FOR PAPERS - TRIPODOS 52: MEDIA AND MENTAL HEALTH

CALL FOR PAPERS MEDIA AND MENTAL HEALTH   Deadline for articles: 15/03/2022 Publication: June 2022   Guest Editors: Prof. María Eugenia Fernández, Catholic University of Uruguay (Uruguay) Prof. Gavin Adamson, Ryerson University (Canada)   It is estimated that 970 million people globally suffer from any mental health or substance use disorders (Statista, 2021[1]). Actually, around the 20% of the world children and adolescents have a mental health condition, which now could cause 1 in 5 years lived with disability (World Health Organization, 2021[2]). Already in 2019, among all diseases, depression was the second cause of global burden of disease and suicide was the second leading cause of death in young people aged 15-29 (ISGlobal, 2021[3]). At the same time, stigmatizing attitudes towards people living with a severe mental illness like schizophrenia worsened in the period from 1990 to 2012 (Schomerus et al, 2012[4]).   This global prevalence and situation is higher since the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak (Nochaiwong et al., 2021[5]). The circumstances surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic have increased the stress and anxiety in people (Winter and Lavis, 2022[6]; Wang et al., 2021[7]). Abrupt changes in daily habits, disconnection from nature and modifications of family roles sometimes resulted in high levels of stress that potentially led to anxiety, depression, and other mental health conditions with long-lasting impact (ISGlobal, 2021[8]). In this context, media and social media played a crucial role on dissemination of information and in connecting people (Su et al., 2021[9]). However, research highlights connections between mental health and viewing media coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic, suggesting the anxiety reflected on television, computer and smartphone was negative for psychological well-being (Holman et al., 2020[10]).   At the same time, fear of contagion and social restrictions brought isolation from society, and from an "other" who was perceived in some cases as a threat (Álvarez-Rementería Álvarez, Roman Etxebarrieta and Santamaria, 2021[11]). If the media representation of people affected by mental health disorders was already a challenge before COVID-19 —then, evidence suggested that media coverage of mental health disorders tended to focus on specific issues, such as violence or crime (Carmichael et al., 2019[12])—, the pandemic and the role of media during it also seemed to have fueled discriminations and social stigma, among several age groups and at a global level.   Because of these reasons, Tripodos 52 wants to focus the attention on research about these crucial issues, so we invite scholars that study mental health and media from interdisciplinary fields to submit a proposal. Suggested topics include but are not limited to: Media representation of mental health disorders. Media influence on mental health disorders. Media and Mental health awareness. Mental health consequences of the COVID-19 media coverage. Mental health consequences of the social media use during the COVID-19 pandemic. Social media and mental health. The stigma of mental health and media. Communication, youth and adolescents, and mental health. Social media use and mental health in adolescents. Communication, gender, and mental health. Mental Health, quality of life and well-being. Link of the call