St. Bonaventure University

News, Publications & Research


Study examines media language and mental health stigma

Apr 09, 2026


Conor Amendola and Dr. Tara Walker

Dr. Tara Walker, associate professor in the Jandoli School of Communication, and Conor Amendola, an undergraduate Media Studies student at St. Bonaventure, published a paper called “‘Somebody Get Me Some Prozac!’: Trivializing Language and the Stigma of Drug Brand Names.”

The paper looks at 30 years of newspaper content about the SSRI class of antidepressants and offers a new theoretical model for understanding stigma and trivialization in media. The paper was published open access in Journalism and Media, and is available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2673-5172/7/1/63