Marissa On Mental Health Blogging

I took it kind of easy last night. Translation: I was working on some other things. This allows me to pass along another fine post from Marissa at depression introspection. Here, she takes on certain aspects of the blogosphere and wonders how blogs can be used to fill the reporting void on mental health issues created by complacent mainstream media outlets:

"Flip on the TV or news radio: give me a weekly report on anything you hear about mental health – depression, bipolar disorder, Zyprexa, Cymbalta – anything BUT celebrities who admit to being depressed. The likelihood that you’ll hear in-depth reporting about mental health is little to nil. Unless you’re listening to or watching a financial report about how Eli Lilly’s fourth-quarter earnings fell, although its Wall Street shares went up. The article corroborates my theory that news outlets only pick up on pharma news in regard to financial earnings as opposed to investigating their underhanded practices. Heaven forbid the AP or Reuters do some original reporting on Lilly and transmit it to national news media."

Her post is well worth reading. I think she's onto something. Maybe we'll soon see an example or two.

She also notes that in the case of 2004's "Memogate" a group of bloggers went nuts on CBS--deservedly so--and forced the network to look into its dummied up National Guard documents regarding President Bush's Vietnam-era service. By implication, she's wondering if that cannot apply in the mental health world--an army of Davids beating up on Big Pharma and so on until the mainstream media is forced to respond. She makes a good point. But I wonder if enough of the mental health blogs are yet focused on the same universe of concern to make that happen. Comments?