Insert Standard Stigmatising Headline & Image Here: Rewriting the Media’s Portrayal of Addiction and Recovery is a research project and programme from Scottish Families Affected by Alcohol and Drugs and the Scottish Recovery Consortium. Both charities shared concerns around the stigma towards people with addictions, and the lack of lived experience highlighted in the media.
‘The media need to not report what they think people want to hear but what they need to hear (funnily enough it may be a more positive message). There needs to be a cultural shift that media has a part in influencing’ – Person in Recovery
Scottish Families supports anyone affected by someone else’s alcohol or drug use, which includes family members, friends, colleagues, and anyone you say is your family. The Scottish Recovery Consortium supports, represents and connects recovery across Scotland by working with recovery in all its forms, including the Recoverists network and a large community of people in recovery. With these large communities of people in recovery and family members, we were able to consult with them through an online survey and a face-to-face workshop to gather their views and opinions on the media’s portrayal of addiction and recovery. We also completed a thematic analysis of media articles and reports from late-2017 to mid-2019 to thoroughly analyse different tones and themes from the media.
With all of our findings, we were able to create an in-depth report and to write and provide six recommendations to journalists and editors on best practice for reporting on addiction and recovery going forward.
Summary and Key Recommendations
Based on our findings from Rewriting the Media’s Portrayal of Addiction and Recovery, we have six recommendations for journalists and editors.
We can work together to create a safe space for people in recovery and people impacted by someone else’s substance use. We can all share positive messages and give the space and opportunity for people to share their stories and to highlight support services and recovery communities across Scotland.
1. Use positive imagery
Images of drugs, broken bottles, paraphernalia and people in vulnerable conditions are negative and stigmatising and should be avoided. This reflects the general stock images of alcohol and drugs that are used in most media articles.
Michaela Jones (left) discusses her experiences here but the imagery focuses on her happy in recovery with her rescue chickens that are an important part of her recovery journey.
Make the images more human, positive and responsible. Use photos of the people who are interviewed, support services, or the community you are talking about.
To the right is an image from the campaign My Recovery Gave Me. A selection of images was launched in 2013 by the Scottish Recovery Consortium where positive images of recovery were created to combat the negative pictures of addiction that are commonly used.
2. Adopt People-First language
Stigmatising language such as ‘user’ and ‘addict’ are seen time and time again in news articles. We see ‘drug abuse’, ‘drug user’, and many variants. People who are interviewed are titled ‘ex-addict’ or ‘former drug abuser’. All of this terminology is judgemental and causes harm. Journalists and editors should use People-First language when reporting on addiction and recovery.
A brilliant resource is ‘Language Matters’ which was developed by the Network of Alcohol and Other Drugs Agencies (NADA) in Australia and is used regularly by the Scottish charities, organisations and services when talking about addiction.
For example, instead of saying ‘abuse’, you can say ‘substance use’. Or rather than saying ‘drug user’ you can say ‘person who uses drugs’.
We recommend that People-First language is used as a standard for anyone reporting on addiction. The one-page resource can be found here.
3. Use your article as an opportunity to educate
Lived experience stories will be more educational (and may be more interesting for readers) than political quotes and statistics. By including honest accounts of addiction and recovery, you can promote the message that people can and do recover from addiction.
People usually remember a story more vividly if there is a personal story included. By including personal accounts, people can relate or empathise more with the people involved, thus educating society about addiction.
4. Always include support service information
Support information should always be included at the end of any article that is reporting on addiction. We have included some organisations below that you can include in your reporting:
Scottish Families Affected by Alcohol and Drugs
A national charity that supports anyone affected by someone’s alcohol or drug use
Helpline: 08080 10 10 11
Helpline email: helpline@sfad.org.uk
Website: www.sfad.org.uk
Scottish Recovery Consortium
Supports, represents and connects recovery across Scotland
Phone: 0141 552 1355
Website: www.scottishrecoveryconsortium.org
Scottish Drugs Forum
Scotland’s national resource of expertise on drugs and related issues
Phone: (Glasgow) 0141 221 1175 (Edinburgh) 0131 221 9300
Website: www.sdf.org.uk
Alcohol Focus Scotland
A national charity working to reduce alcohol harm
Phone: 0141 572 6700
Email: enquiries@alcohol-focus-scotland.org.uk
Website: www.alcohol-focus-scotland.org.uk
Crew 2000
A harm reduction and outreach charity based in Scotland
Phone: 0131 220 3404
Email: admin@crew2000.org.uk
Website: www.crew.scot
SHAAP (Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems)
SHAAP aims to provide an authoritative medical voice on the impact of alcohol on the health of the people of Scotland and to campaign for action to reduce this harm
Phone: 0131 247 3667
Email: shaap@rcpe.ac.uk
Website: https://www.shaap.org.uk
Know the Score
Information and facts about drugs
Website: https://knowthescore.info
5. Learn about lived experience and the impact of stigma
There are many support groups and recovery communities across Scotland who are happy and willing to speak to journalists.
Both Scottish Families and the Scottish Recovery Consortium are keen to work with journalism and media students to address this issue from the outset and help encourage positive reporting of this topic for future workforce.
There are also regular events such as Recovery Walk Scotland which journalists can attend to learn more about recovery.
We recommend that journalists and editors reach out to groups and communities to learn more about their work.
Scottish Families service directory is full of support groups, treatment services and community groups across Scotland you may wish to contact.
6. Include more positive stories reflecting recovery, support, and lived/living experiences
There are many people in Scotland who are happy to share their story, as they want to be able to help other people get into support and recovery. We want journalists and editors to move beyond the urgent ask of ‘do you have a case study we can speak to today?’ towards spending time to get to know people and learn more about their experiences.
People deserve to be treated as humans rather than labelled as a ‘case study’. A person’s story can be ignored because it is not ‘interesting enough’, but every single person’s story is worth telling, and their experience will help someone else.
Podcasts
Alongside our report, we have interviewed several people to share their experiences of the media. We have interviewed a family member, a person in recovery and two journalists. Their experiences include positive coverage, showing dignity and respect, and connecting with communities.