Communicating Risk: Journalistic news values, and medical, health professional and lay discourses on suicide and mental illness

Traditional journalistic practices in reporting suicide and mental health/illness issues are under strong challenge from a variety of groups, including medical/health professionals, and people diagnosed with mental illness. The project investigates the changing dynamics and hotlycontested interplay between media, journalistic, medical, health professional and lay discourses about these issues, using in-depth interviews, focus groups and media analyses. How do media label events and people, and how do various audiences interpret and manage this information? Key outcomes include theoretically informed understandings of the positions of key stakeholders and policy advice for government and health professionals in planning communication strategies.