Television,madness and community care

This paper describes the forms and contents of television representations of mental illness in the UK in 1992. The theoretical framework is provided by Moscovici's theory of social representations and some modifications are proposed for the case of madness. Quantitative and qualitative methods are used in the empirical analyses. It is shown that madness has multiple meanings on television, while at the same time violence is commonly included. It is also suggested that a partial reconfiguration of the representational field has taken place in recent years. Media stories about the responsibility of the policy of community care for scandals and tragedies are now commonplace. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.