Analysing media portrayals of people with substance use disorder and addiction: A scoping review

Stigma about substance use disorders (SUDs) is a barrier to treatment and care. Media portrayals of SUDs influence public perceptions of people with SUDs and form the foundation for societal opinions and perspectives. For this reason, it is crucial to evaluate how the media portrays SUDs. This paper examines how the mass media portrays individuals with SUDs and how these portrayals reinforce negative stereotypes. It also evaluates the influence of media portrayals and the intersection of skin colour with these depictions. Additionally, this paper advocates for communication strategies that aim to destigmatize SUDs to enhance public education and encourage treatment-seeking behaviour. We used a scoping review approach, searching PubMed for medical subject heading (MeSH) terms '(addiction) and (portrayal)' (n=58) and '(addiction) and (portrayal) and (media)' (n=37). The search yielded 58 unique peer-reviewed articles (duplicates removed; n=37). Of these, 42 did not meet our topic criteria, leaving 16 articles for analysis. Inductive thematic coding was performed on the 16 articles and uncovered eight portrayal themes: (1) positive endorsement (n=8, 50.0%), (2) violent or dangerous (n=7, 43.8%), (3) criminal (n=6, 37.5%), (4) risky behaviours (n=6, 37.5%), (5) policy-making (n=5, 31.3%), (6) unreliable, unstable or uncontrollable (n=3, 18.8%), (7) interventions or treatments (n=3, 18.8%), and (8) celebrity (n=3, 18.8%). These themes were observed in four types of media: entertainment media (n=9), social media (n=1), news media (n=7) and marketing media (n=5). The findings show that media portrayals of individuals with SUDs continue to reinforce negative stereotypes. Effective campaigns to counter this portrayal with anti-stigmatizing communication of addiction-related topics require collaboration between patients as partners, experts in addiction science and science communicators.