Measuring the Stigmatizing Effects of a Highly Publicized Event on Online Mental Health Discourse

Media coverage has historically played an influential and often stigmatizing role in the public’s understanding of mental illness through harmful language and inaccurate portrayals of those with mental health issues. However, it is unknown how and to what extent media events may affect stigma in online discourse regarding mental health. In this study, we examine a highly publicized event – the celebrity defamation trial between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard – to uncover how stigmatizing and destigmatizing language on Twitter changed during and after the course of the trial. Using causal impact and language analysis methods, we provided a first look at how external events can lead to significantly greater levels of stigmatization and lower levels of destigmatization on Twitter towards not only particular disorders targeted in the coverage of external events but also general mental health discourse.