Media & Mental Health: Delivering A Duty of Care

This conference will assess the impact of media platforms on mental health and how media industries can deliver a legal duty of care.

Media is growing and diversifying at an incredible pace; we engage daily with 24/7 news, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, anytime streaming, podcasts and other platforms that undeniably impact our thoughts about the world and ourselves. Mental Health & Media: Delivering A Duty of Care will bring together perspectives from across platforms, mental health service providers and policy makers to assess, discuss and develop best practices for using the incredible power of the media to educate, influence and determine positive mental health outcomes. The conference programme will:

• Compare and contrast international policy - such as Germany's NetzGD law and Article 13 of the European Union's copyright directive - with policy brought forward in the UK to regulate against harmful content on social media.
• Learn more about the statutory duty of care recommended by the parliamentary Science and Technology committee; discuss duty of care delivery – i.e. how does advertising cosmetic surgery and appetite suppressors during programming popular with demographics vulnerable to body-image issues impact MH and neglect the duty of care?
• How can online regulators effectively regulate for children and adults?
• Explore how mental health service providers, the NHS and FE/HE institutes can work with the media to further destigmatize mental health and develop approaches to preventing development of MH problems like anxieties, isolation, perfectionism and presenteeism.
• Review the relationship(s) developing between people, data and the internet of things.
• Debate the influence of 24/7 news culture on mental health.
• Address how ‘poverty porn’ contributes to prejudicial attitudes and the development of damaging self-images.   
• Assess how to effectively deliver the duty of care for people employed in and involved with media production across multiple platforms.