'Graphic Medicine’ as a mental health information resource: Insights from comics producers

Farthing, Anthony and Priego, Ernesto (2016) 'Graphic Medicine’ as a mental health information resource: Insights from comics producers. The Comics Grid: Journal of Comics Scholarship, 6 (1) (3). pp. 1-23. ISSN Online: 2048-0792 Full text available

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Abstract

Recent literature suggests that a growing number of comics are being published on health-related topics, including aspects of mental health and social care (Williams 2012; Czerwiec et al 2015) and that comics are increasingly being used in higher education settings as information resources. This article offers insights from comics creators and disseminators and explores the wider context of comics production and distribution (with a focus on 'Graphic Medicine' or health-related comics) as part of a larger examination of the interface between these documents and potential academic audiences. Original data was gathered through semi-structured interviews with 15 participants actively involved in comics creation and production. Elements of domain analysis (Hjørland 2002) were used to obtain insights into attitudes to the creation, dissemination and use of mental health-related comics. Though potentially useful comics material is being produced in the mental health domain, significant challenges remain for producers in enabling their work to be accessed within higher education settings. This paper suggests that comics producers need to make a concerted effort to reach academia, and academia - including information professionals - need to embrace new types of material to enhance teaching.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: Published on 08 Feb 2016. A dataset comprising interviews is also available from this repository.
Uncontrolled Keywords: Graphic Medicine, Higher Education, Interviews, Mental Health, Social Care
Subjects: Cognitive Processes, Theory of Mind > Arts - Applied Psychology
Cognitive Processes, Theory of Mind > Creativity
Department/People: Research
URI: https://repository.tavistockandportman.ac.uk/id/eprint/1200

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