ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book presents new knowledge from people with experience of a mental health condition by enlisting their advice for better understanding of their situation. It describes the ways in which the subjectivities of people with mental health conditions are guided by interpretation and also how these subjectivities are in part constituted in mediations. Media meaning-making is analysed across a range of genre forms portraying mental health, madness and distress. The book includes a Media Reception-Production Study incorporating new forms of media meaning-making by people with experience of a mental health condition. It explores contexts and debates informing the question of mediation are examined in analyses that point to ways forward in mediation improvement. The book addresses how cultural meanings about madness, with their deficits and distortions, have evolved in society and media, and become popularized in a range of genre forms.
