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Racism in Modern Media (The Sopranos) and the Application to Black Mental Health in Modern Day
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 July 2023
Abstract
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Aims
‘The Sopranos’ is a well known television show, following the life of an Italian-American mobster suffering from anxiety and depression. Despite the overarching theme of mental well-being, elements of racism still feature within the show. These elements are ever-present throughout society and can act as an additional stressor for black minorities, who have an increased risk of suffering from mental health problems compared to their counterparts. Racism has also been linked with an increased probability of developing depression. This qualitative study aims to look at the portrayal of black characters in Season One episodes 1 and 2, to identify themes and psychiatric associations with black mental health. It identifies negative portrayals and conceptualises how these impact black mental health in the real world. Finally, it aims to use these results to propose ways of engaging with the media and the self, to improve negative stereotyping and bias.
Methods
This qualitative study was performed using thematic analysis via a deductive approach. This included creating themes, to then apply to depictions and interactions of black characters who featured within episodes 1 and 2 of the first season of The Sopranos.
Themes included: occupation, social network, verbal negative connotations, derogatory language, physical appearance.
Three online databases were used: Google Scholar, PubMed and BMJ Journals to identify literature ranging from 1999–2023. This focused on literature exploring relationships between media, cognition, society and/or racism.
Literature of the most recent mental health data collected within the UK Survey featuring Black Caribbean/British/African was also analysed.
Results
Several depictions of negative stereotypes and behaviours of both black men and women were present in both episodes. These were in the forms of: derogatory language, pacification and code-switching and negative interactions with other characters.
Literature has established that negative presentations within media can result in marginalisation of ethnic groups, which can be extrapolated here.
Conclusion
Negative depictions and stereotypes of black minorities may be having an impact on their mental health and could explain finding of mental health within Black minorities. It could affect the way they interact with the world and apply additional stressors via unconscious bias.
To resolve this, changes within social media and self-awareness should be promoted, so this is less likely to happen.
- Type
- Education and Training
- Information
- BJPsych Open , Volume 9 , Supplement S1: Abstracts from the RCPsych International Congress 2023, 10–13 July , July 2023 , pp. S24 - S25
- Creative Commons
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. This does not need to be placed under each abstract, just each page is fine.- Copyright
- Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Royal College of Psychiatrists
Footnotes
Abstracts were reviewed by the RCPsych Academic Faculty rather than by the standard BJPsych Open peer review process and should not be quoted as peer-reviewed by BJPsych Open in any subsequent publication.
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