Bye bye stereotype? Sharing mental health stories on YouTube as a discursive practice

Abstract

According to the World Health Organization one in four people are affected by mental health issues at some stage in their lives (WHO 2013). Online video platform YouTube’s statistics show that the website reaches one in three people on the internet (“YouTube Statistics” 2017). This research looks at the YouTubers’ discursive practices when they talk about their mental health issues. The main research question is: How do YouTubers address mental health problems and thereby challenge or adhere to the stereotypical dominant discourse found in mainstream media? To uncover the discursive elements and patterns within YouTube videos sample, the discourse surrounding mental illness will be looked at from a representational point of view, such as employed by scholars like Foucault (1971, 1988) and Dyer (2002). In mainstream media, people with mental health issues are portrayed as violent, childlike and unable to care for themselves (Parrott and Parrot 2015; Wollheim 2007; Signorielli 1989). Building on existing literature, this research helps to create greater understanding of the way discourses function on modern platforms such as YouTube. By opening up about their mental health issues, the YouTubers in this study add new dimensions to what Dyer calls the ‘cloud of connotations’ hovering above mental illness, which currently consists of primarily negative and unrealistic portrayals (Dyer 2002, 8). What is shown through a discourse analysis of twelve YouTube videos dating from 2015 to 2017, is that although the YouTubers add a new, more public and easily accessible perspective to the mental health discourse, they still adhere discursively to the mainstream portrayals. By making these videos, the YouTubers in this sample start to break through the traditional mainstream portrayal, but do not manage to leave its stereotypical discourse behind entirely.