Bell Let’s Talk And The Circuit Of Culture: A Socio-Cultural Analysis

Historically, individuals suffering from mental illness have been ostracized in society, creating biased perceptions of those individuals and ultimately leading them to isolation. This stigmatization has been continuously reinforced by various media, resulting in resistance towards discussing mental health in public or delaying individuals to seek treatment.

Bell Let’s Talk Day, established in 2010, is an annual social media fundraising campaign seeking to reduce the stigma against mental illness through interpersonal and mass communication. The campaign raises funds by donating five cents for every social media post that uses its branded media materials or hashtag, as well as for phone calls and text messages sent on the Bell network. One can better understand the ongoing impact of media phenomena such as Bell Let’s Talk through Paul du Gay’s Circuit of Culture. The Circuit of Culture is a framework used to analyze the cultural effect of media texts, which is comprised of five interconnected variables: representation, identity, production, consumption, and regulation. For the purpose of this paper, culture will be defined as a set of beliefs and ideals informed by the collective experiences of a society, that in turn influences their behaviour. It is important to note that media artifacts do not usually carry meaning outside their cultural context, as it is not the media itself, but the cultural meaning of media that helps people to make sense of their experiences.

By comparing the cultural conditions of each variable before and after campaign, du Gay’s Circuit of Culture can explain the extent to which the Bell Let’s Talk campaign has helped remediate the harmful socio-cultural consequences manifested by media prior to its implementation, harnessing social media platforms to generate tangible media effects. Representation is defined as the way in which a message or meaning is relayed to the audience through media, often using signs and language. Prior to the Bell Let’s Talk campaign, people affected by mental illness were negatively portrayed in media texts and excluded from mainstream culture, resulting in stigmatization. As media is the primary, and usually most accessible, source of information on mental illness, this type of representation was particularly detrimental. In 2013, 27% of people in Canada reported being fearful of people who suffer from mental illness, a sentiment which contributes to the social exclusion of mentally ill people. To reduce this isolation, Bell Let’s Talk employs Paul Lazarsfeld’s Two-Step Flow Theory, which explains that there exists an “opinion leader” between the sender of the message and the audience.

The Bell Let’s Talk campaign normalizes mental illness by allowing the message to be transmitted by influencers, as well as one’s friends and family via social media creating a virtual support network. The campaign also takes advantage of celebrity participation to generate publicity and increase the credibility of their message. At present, people with acute mental illness are being increasingly represented in popular culture. For instance, the television show This is Us addresses a variety of controversial social issues including topics such as anxiety and substance abuse. While the socio-cultural effects of the campaign have clearly influenced mainstream media, further representation of mental illness will help perpetuate Bell Let’s Talk’s message, ultimately decreasing the stigma around mental illness. Creators can establish and evolve their identity through representational choices in the media they produce. Likewise, individuals claim and reject certain identities through the media they consume, which is based on their cultural values. Until the Bell Let’s Talk campaign, mental illness was a taboo subject that most individuals did not choose to publicly identify with. This is because the majority of society engaged with media texts that represented people with mental illness as less-than-human and labelled them using derogatory vocabulary such as “crazy” or “psycho”. As such, individuals were represented as their illness, and denied the opportunity to choose whether to adopt their condition as part of their identity. The campaign tries to de-emphasize the cultural significance of mental illness, recognizing that while it can certainly affect an individual’s daily life, that it only becomes a part of their identity if they so choose. This is emphasized through the use of person-first language, which avoids highlighting a person’s illness over their individuality, for example, by saying a “person with a mental illness”, rather than a “mentally ill person”. For instance, a talk show featuring Howie Mandel on a segment about Bell Let’s Talk would introduce him first as a comedian and television personality rather than by his OCD diagnosis. By separating individuals from the cultural identity of mental illness, the stigma is greatly reduced and allows these individuals to engage with other aspects of their culture through societal interaction. It should be noted that there is an essential difference between identifying, or resonating, with a topic and accepting it as part of one’s identity. As a direct result of the campaign, a larger percentage of people are identifying with mental illness, and are therefore actively choosing to seek treatment. With this said, the campaign also allows individuals to speak up about their mental illness, and have it associated with their identity if they choose to do so without the fear of stigmatization. Production refers to the way in which an individual or society constructs meaning about itself through the creation of media.

Prior to the Bell Let’s Talk campaign, society relied on media producers to create meaning that reflected their collective cultural values. Currently, the age of participatory culture is revolutionizing the way media messages are created. Participatory culture allows the audience to not just consume the message, but to adopt and disseminate messages by producing their own content. This phenomenon has become especially prevalent in the era of social media. Bell Let’s Talk harnesses participatory culture by giving viewers access to branded Facebook photo banners, Snapchat geo-filters, and hashtags. Participatory culture can create an interesting dynamic where some individuals may appropriate these media objects to convey meaning about themselves by identifying with the campaign, while others may feel pressured to create a post so as not to seem unsupportive of the cause. This concept helps Bell to create an even larger following, ultimately generating more funding for their campaign. Bell as a company has produced meaning through their campaign, in that they are now recognized as advocates for the mental health community. In engaging with the campaign, celebrities and civilians are able to assume the identity of an activist. Ultimately, it can be argued that it is not Bell as a company that creates the meaning of its campaign, but rather it provides the audience with a curated, legitimized platform to produce media that shares their cultural values. Interestingly, Bell Let’s Talk campaign blurs the boundary between production and consumption, also defined as the way in which society engages with media texts to reinforce or challenge cultural norms.

Prior to the campaign, society did not challenge media texts that perpetuated harmful stereotypes about mental health. Despite the fact that Bell Let’s Talk challenges social norms, it has been mostly well-received due to the emphasis on advocacy and creating positive change. One must keep in mind that while social action is undoubtedly the focus of the campaign, in branding the campaign in association with their company, Bell Let’s Talk also serves as an advertisement for their services, ultimately creating opportunities for criticism. Although the campaign has been met with predominantly positive responses, there has been some controversy that the campaign is hypocritical because Bell’s products seem to be creating many of the mental health issues they are attempting to address. This notion is based on studies that have shown that increased engagement with social media can lead to depression, due to cyberbullying, interpersonal comparison or potentially through exposure to troubling imagery. Despite varying opinions on the matter, it can be argued that Bell takes advantage of the overwhelming use of social media by exposing the same audience who may be experiencing negative mental health effects to positive messages. Regulation is the means by which production, distribution, and consumption of media texts is, or is not restricted. Prior to the campaign, messages about mental illness were controlled by content creators and the media, influencing cultural values. This provided a very one-sided and regulated view of mental illness that did not allow society to engage in the conversation and contribute to the overarching cultural perceptions of this issue.

As the campaign relies on social media activity, there is virtually no regulation of the message, especially because anybody is able to author their own content on the subject matter and associate with the campaign through the corresponding media artifacts or hashtag. In addition to social media, the campaign garners support from local media and talk shows, further promoting the message and disseminating it to a larger audience. Following the campaign, the discussion of mental health is no longer confined to Bell Let’s Talk Day. Rather, the campaign has kickstarted an ongoing, unregulated discussion that will continue to be reappropriated relative to cultural shifts. As a result, people are generally more open about sharing their experience with mental health on a variety of media platforms. For instance, the uptick of wellness Instagram accounts such as @leefromamerica and @shutthekaleup demonstrates a societal willingness to spread awareness and normalize conditions such as eating disorders, anxiety, and substance abuse. Arguably, it is the lack of regulation of social media platforms that has allowed Bell Let’s Talk to reach its fundraising goals while promoting its message, and therefore influencing cultural values. Bell Let’s Talk campaign has utilized communication through social media to change the cultural perception of mental illness, as explained by du Gay’s Circuit of Culture. By relying on societal involvement, Bell has continuously expanded the reach of their message while simultaneously expanding each affected individual’s support network.

Now that the campaign has gained traction, the effects are seen beyond Bell Let’s Talk Day and have influenced society on an ongoing basis, through greater representation of mental illness in mainstream media, increased conversation about mental illness using social media, and most importantly, in decreasing the stigma such that individuals are more willing to access care. The Bell Let’s Talk campaign is proof of the efficacy of participatory culture as a tool for social justice. With social media growing as a primary form of communication, the application of these techniques to other social issues would help society work towards a culture that is more inclusive and equitable.