Bereaved Mothers’ Use of Media Advocacy in Advancing Harm Reduction in Canada
Creators: Morris, Heather Michelle
Publisher: name: University of Alberta Library
Year: 2022

<p>Canada is currently witnessing a drug poisoning crisis never before seen with over 26,000 Canadians having lost their lives to an apparent opioid toxicity death since January 2016. Mothers who have lost a child to substance use have emerged as prominent and outspoken critics of Canadian drug policy, widely advocating for harm reduction services to address this crisis in the news media. While a growing body of literature has investigated the experience of parents who have lost a child to substance use, no extant research has examined mothers’ experiences of engaging in news media advocacy, how they are represented in the media, or whether such media engagement is associated with positive or negative public opinion of harm reduction. <br>
To address these knowledge gaps, this dissertation had two primary objectives: (1) advance academic scholarship on the role and impact of bereaved mothers’ media advocacy in the context of harm reduction, and (2) to provide evidence to support parents’ efforts to mobilize media engagement in support of their advocacy efforts.  Three studies addressed these objectives: a qualitative study to describe how 43 Canadian mothers who have lost a child to substance use describe their experiences of media advocacy (Study 1); a mixed methods study of the volume/content and the underlying discourses in Canadian newspaper coverage on harm reduction (2000-2016) featuring a mother whose child’s death was related to substance use (Study 2); and a secondary analyses of cross-sectional data obtained from a 2018 nationally-representative online panel survey to examine the extent to which, and who, among the general public, have seen or heard mothers bereaved by substance use in the media. Further analysis was undertaken to identify predictors of exposure to bereaved mother’s media as well as examine the association of exposure to bereaved mothers’ media with public acceptance of harm reduction (Study 3).<br>
Study 1 revealed that members of the news media are seen by bereaved mothers as powerful allies in advocating for drug policy reform though there exist a number of inherent risks in undertaking such work, such as a fear of news media complacency, insensitive comments by journalists or the public, the potential for sensationalism and having one’s story misrepresented. Study 2 revealed that newspaper articles (2000-2016) featuring a mother whose child’s death was related to substance use were rarely published (1.1% of newspaper texts during the study period). While bereaved mother’s pro-harm reduction messages appeared in the majority of texts we examined, the news media emphasized mothers’ expressions of grief, obscured broader structural factors contributing to substance use harm and created rhetorical divisions between different groups of people who use drugs. Finally, Study 3 found that a majority (58.3%) of Canadians had seen or heard media featuring a mother whose child had died from an overdose. Greater familiarity with people who use drugs and older age were positively associated with self-reported exposure to such media. Respondents who had been exposed to bereaved mother’s media coverage were less likely to respond ‘don’t know/no opinion’  vs. being opposed to harm reduction while other predictors of public support for harm reduction included stigma, age, level of education and political views. The results of these three studies, when taken together, indicate that the news media plays a significant role in bereaved mothers’ own efforts to advocate for harm reduction. Despite the fact that bereaved mothers had low visibility in harm reduction newspaper texts 2000-2016, during a time when their pro-harm reduction advocacy messages were at times obscured, over half of Canadian adults in 2018 indicated that they had seen or heard media featuring a mother whose child had died of an overdose. As well, bereaved mothers themselves attest to the important role that the news media has played in their advocacy work. As an emerging field in public health communication research, further study using a variety of research methodologies is required to evaluate the advocacy work being undertaken by bereaved mothers in their efforts to counter substance-related stigma and increase public support for harm reduction efforts.</p>