Qualitative Research | Political Media & Mental Health
A contextual inquiry into the increased political media consumption in the United States and understanding what some of the impacts are that increased political media consumption has had on individual and collective mental health.
8 Weeks | January - March 2023
Inspiration
General observations of people struggling to balance mental health with staying aware and informed. I’ve found that balance difficult myself and wanted to hear other people’s perspectives.
My Role
Sole Design Researcher
Tools & Skills
Contextual User Research
Secondary Research
Synthesis & Affinity Mapping
Insights & Design Implications
Storytelling
Background
The political climate has been more polarized and in turmoil since 2016.
The pandemic added additional challenges for people individually and collectively.
Objectives
To study the impact that increased political media consumption has had on
Individual mental health
Immediate and extended personal relationships
More about the participants
The participants had varied personalities and values spanning individualistic and collectivist.
Two spoke more to the bird’s eye perspective while others shared their personal stories and day to day experiences.
Two participants shared opinions and perspectives highlighting both the positive and negative effects.
One of the participants works in the service sector which provided another layer of communication and connection to be learned from.
Something that stood out there was that people were playing the role of a therapist because of the nature of their interactions and the lack of support system in most people’s lives.
The Process
Eight participants were interviewed, majority being on the left side of the political spectrum with just one who identified being on the right.
These were contextual interviews to help understand participants’ perspectives in the context of their work, personal support systems and communities they were an active part of.
The interviews were then synthesized using affinity mapping where themes were refined and the strongest six themes helped reach two insights.
Participant Quotes
“ So the headlines try to get you most of what you want, we already thirst for articles, so, I don't think it is an immediate responsibility to perform ethically and morally and give people correct information…
So that kind of mentality needs to change within the Media, of not necessarily wanting to be first or have the exclusive, but having correct, substantial information.
…and then culturally, we have to want to like to sit down and digest. ”
- Jason
“ Political Media are just machines meant to influence you to think a certain way about another demographic. The purpose of these media machines is to make money.
This is the part that blew my mind.
Its purpose is to make money. ”
- Ron
“Things that happen to a person outside of skin color, outside of religion, those intrapersonal things, that can happen to anyone, no matter where you're from, can help bond people [across political lines] more so.
You're using one aspect versus multiple aspects to define your tribe and that allows you to potentially expand your community to places that you might not have considered.”
- Sarah
Insights
Political Media is polarizing, reducing the connectedness of our society. Its influence over the viewers is excessive and people are giving up close ties for validation for their beliefs.
The loss in our communities is compounding.
Political Media in the US is failing the people it’s meant to be serving, by disseminating information in ways that maximizes viewership that is emotionally reactive but not equipped to take meaningful action and effect change.
In its quest for profit, the US political media trains people to go through cycles of reaction, burnout and eventual desensitization.
Design Principles
Design of products for political awareness must move people towards collective action for a common future rather than towards hardening identities and boundaries based on beliefs.
This will be accomplished by designing the language to design our culture
Using language that is not emotionally charged
Framing issues in terms of supporting a value rather than being against a value
Appealing to common values before challenging strong, polarizing ones
Reflections
I have a deeper understanding of the relationship people have with political media and its effects.
While the project was focused on implication for designing anything in the media space, personally I also found the experience valuable to learning more about individual and group behavior and values.
Some experiences were two sides of the same coin
People glad to cut ties and finding value alignment in new connections
People being pushed out when they were no longer loyal to the group’s values…while they felt that they could still maintain ties and wanted to
It was interesting to find that in some instances people experienced losing relationships and gaining new ones at the same time. They found their community, and that was enough. In other instances though, the loss of relationships was felt for a long time and there was a desire to repair it, finding other people validating and accepting their values wasn’t enough.
Outcome & Next Steps
Design implications for any journalistic product or service wanting to serve people without commoditization of the viewer’s attention and without hurting their mental health.
If I continue with this research project in the future I would interview SMEs like therapists and political communication professionals.