Nedra Kline Weinreich Entertainment Industries Council Presented at National Conference on Health Communication, Marketing and Media August 21, 2013

1. BUILDING SUSTAINABILITY OF
MENTAL HEALTH MESSAGES
IN NEWS AND ENTERTAINMENT MEDIA
Nedra Kline Weinreich
Entertainment Industries Council, Inc.
@Nedra

2. Core Principles
• Mission Statement: To bring the power and
influence of the entertainment industry to
bear on communication about health and
social issues
• Engage with stakeholders to develop
messages
• Collaborate with media – not a “watchdog”
• Respect for media and right to free speech

3. TEAM Up Project Partners

4. Media Partners

5. Project Funding

6. TEAM Up provides resources to news and
entertainment industry professionals to
depict mental health issues accurately and in a
nonstigmatizing way.
What is TEAM Up?
Tools for Entertainment and Media

7. Project Goals
To increase the level of mental health among
Californians by working with
entertainment, news and social media
professionals to:
– Decrease the level of stigma felt by those who need to
access mental health services or have been diagnosed
with a mental illness, leading to help-seeking behavior
– Decrease the level of discriminatory and prejudicial
actions toward people with mental health issues by
others in their community

8. Objectives
Media professionals will have positive changes
in:
– Knowledge – mental illness facts, how to talk about
mental health in a non-stigmatizing way, that EIC/TEAM
Up is a resource they can use
– Attitudes – level of stereotypes/prejudice, belief that
what they do can affect their audience positively or
negatively, self efficacy, accuracy as a value
– Behaviors – attend TEAM Up events, contact us for
assistance, consult our website/materials, create and
report accurate stories following guidelines, adopt our
recommendations as organizational policy

9. Program Pillars
News Media
Entertainment
Industry
Mental Health
Stakeholders

10. A Program of the Entertainment Industries Council, In c.
SPOTLIGHT ON DEPICTION OF HEALTH AND SOCI AL I SSUES:
M ENTAL I LLNESS, WELLNESS AND RECOVERY
A Resour ce for the Enter tainment Community
Key Messages

11. Key Messaging Points
• Assessing relevance to story
• Using reliable sources for diagnosis
• Choosing words for accuracy
• Avoiding reinforcement of stereotypes and
stigma
• Using person-first language
• Avoiding assumption that violence caused
by mental illness

12. Usual Approach – One by One

13. Our Approach:
Message Sustainability

14. Sustainability through:
• Creating Message Infrastructure
• Establishing Partnerships
• Working at Corporate Level
• Working at Association Level
• Training the Next Generation
• Building Organizational Capacity

15. Message Infrastructure

16. Partnerships
California Newspaper Publishers Assn
California Broadcasters Assn
Journalism Assn of
Community Colleges

17. Working at Corporate Level
• Univision
– 12 affiliates in California
• Digital First/Media News Group
– 70 newspapers in California
• Patch/AOL/Huffington Post
• Television Networks
– Standards & Practices, Programming, Creative
Executives

18. Newsroom Briefings
– Riverside Press-
Enterprise
– Orange County Register
– San Jose Mercury News
– Contra Costa Times
– Oakland Tribune
– Other Digital First
Papers
– KQED
– Patch
(NoCal)/AOL/Huffingto
n Post

19. Working at Association Level
• National Association of
Broadcasters/California Broadcasters
Association
• Radio Television Digital News Association
• California Newspaper Publishers
Association
• New America Media
• Ethnic-Specific Media Associations
– e.g., Asian American Journalist
Association, National Association of Hispanic
Journalists, etc.

20. Building Organizational Capacity
• Training mental health stakeholders to tell
their stories and work with media
– County Mental Health Departments
– Community Based Organizations/Providers
– People with Lived Experience/Family Members
• Picture This forums create dialogue between
media and stakeholders
• Mental health reporting fellowships for
journalists

21. Training the Next Generation
• Generation Next Program
– Training film/television and journalism students on
accurate depictions/reporting
– Faculty training and curriculum adoption grants
– Guest lectures in classes/student organizations
– Student competition
– Active Minds chapters mini-grants for participation
• Partners
– UC/CSU/Calif. Community Colleges
– Journalism Association of Community Colleges

22. (866) 284-9767
teamup@eiconline.org
http://eiconline.org/teamup
Questions?