Media Psychology : Pitfalls Seen for Advisers on the Air

A Colorado man came to San Diego recently and drove around the city for two days, not stopping to eat or sleep. He fumbled with the radio and wound up listening to a psychologist.

“You saved my life,” the man later told the doctor. “I was planning on killing myself, but what you said made sense.”

The despondent man had found one of a new breed of doctors who label themselves “media psychologists.”

Dr. Michael Mantell, the psychologist heard on the radio by the Denver man, recently presented a paper at the American Psychological Assn. convention in Los Angeles in which he waged war on what he called the “microwave-quick” advice being given out by some psychologists of the airwaves.

Psychology First

“I believe we would all be a great deal better off if we remember we are psychologists who work in the media rather than media folks who happen to be psychologists,” Mantell said.

Mantell cautioned his fellow APA members to remember that their primary purpose is to help others.

“The seduction of fame, power and fortune in the media can be great to the individual who is not securely grounded in his own professional identity,” he said.

Many news shows in larger cities regularly use psychologists at the scene of a tragedy. They offer predictions of what feelings and problems the victims, witnesses and members of the community will face and how they will deal with them.

‘Supposed to Be Experts’

“Our motivation in using these psychologists is that they are supposed to be experts on emotions. They can summarize how a community feels at the time of a tragedy,” said Jim Holtzman, the executive news director of San Diego television station KFMB.

Mantell said that radio and television psychologists can do a serious a disservice to listeners by playing to an audience rather than to the problems of the individual caller.

“The gross unethical practices of some media psychologists are well known to most who have examined the literature and have listened to tapes of radio and television programming,” Mantell said.

Mantell sits on a media ethics committee, which regularly reviews tapes. He said he has heard tapes in which the caller was cut off for sounding too old or too upset.

‘Better Entertainment’

“Some desperate-sounding people were put on hold,” Mantell said. “If they were not used on the show, they did not receive any help but were cut off. They were ignored in favor of callers who were more provocative or who were better entertainment.”

Mantell accused some media psychologists of worrying more about ratings than about the problems of patients.

“When psychologists focus more attention on (the show-business publication) Variety and less attention on psychology journals, ‘media high’ has set in,” Mantell said.

The president of the Assn. for Media Psychology, Dr. Jackie Bouhoutsos, warns psychologists: “Don’t get led astray. Don’t heed the siren call of fame and fortune; this too shall pass. Media will come and go, but you’ll still have your profession.”

Other doctors believe that their broadcasts can achieve something important.

Advice on Medication

“There are a lot of people being helped,” said Dr. Theresa Crenshaw, a psychiatrist who makes frequent appearances on radio programs.

“A woman called me recently telling me that her daughter was suicidal,” Crenshaw recalled. “I was able to determine that the medication she was taking was causing the depression. The 17-year-old girl is fine now and the woman was so very grateful.

“There is no doubt that benefits outweigh the hazards,” Crenshaw said.

Mantell conceded that good mental-health service in the media can be accomplished.

“If station managers will look at counseling to provide help rather than simple soap opera value in these real life problems, help can be found for listeners,” Mantell said.

“People can get terribly hurt, however, if they anticipate that office counseling will provide the same quick fix that they hear people on the radio getting,” he added.