en Medical Education Medical Education Original Research Original Research <span style="font-size:13pt"><span style="text-justify:kashida"><span style="text-kashida:0%"><span style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif"><span style="font-style:italic"><b><span style="font-size:9.0pt"><span style="font-style:normal">Background: </span></span></b><span style="font-size:9.0pt"><span style="font-style:normal">Negative public perceptions of mental diseases and even therapists are among the most important obstacles to patients&#39; therapeutic progress. Such attitudes are constructed by cultural and social structures. Through continuous reproducing and representing these attitudes, the media can strengthen the negative attitudes toward mental patients. On the other hand, the critical representation of social and cultural clich&eacute;s in the media can reduce mental illness stigma. Psychiatrists should interact with the media regarding their concerns about mental illness stigma to achieve this goal; as a result, they must learn how to communicate with the media.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br> <span style="font-size:13pt"><span style="text-justify:kashida"><span style="text-kashida:0%"><span style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif"><span style="font-style:italic"><span style="font-size:9.0pt"><span style="font-style:normal">&nbsp;&nbsp; <b>Methods: </b>A 5-day workshop was designed and implemented with the participation of 11 facilitators and 16 psychiatry residents from five universities in Iran. Then, a focus group session was held.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br> <span style="font-size:13pt"><span style="text-justify:kashida"><span style="text-kashida:0%"><span style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif"><span style="font-style:italic"><span style="font-size:9.0pt"><span style="font-style:normal">&nbsp;&nbsp; <b>Results:</b> According to the results of the quantitative data analysis, the trainees prefer online media over traditional media, implying that they prefer interactive media platforms. Before the workshop, the trainees had believed that media coverage of psychiatry is biased and erroneous and that they should oversee the entire process of health content development by journalists. Besides, they were also interested in communicating with society. After the workshop, the focus group interview showed that the participating psychiatry residents felt that this activity improved their media literacy, enhanced their skills at interacting with the media, and encouraged them to interact more with the media in the future on health-related issues.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br> <span style="font-size:13pt"><span style="text-justify:kashida"><span style="text-kashida:0%"><span style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif"><span style="font-style:italic"><span style="font-size:9.0pt"><span style="font-style:normal">&nbsp;&nbsp; <b>Conclusion:</b> Residents in psychiatry have a higher tendency for communicating with the media in the field of mental health in general. They stated that they needed to engage in the creation of popular mental health content.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br> &nbsp; Psychiatry Residency, Online Media, Media Literacy, Mental Illness Stigma 544 550 http://mjiri.iums.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-5920-1&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Arsia Taghva drarsiataghva@irimc.org 200319475328460071303 200319475328460071303 No School of Medicine, Aja University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Afsaneh Atashi a.atashi85@gmail.com 200319475328460071304 200319475328460071304 No School of Psychology, Bangalore University, Bangalore, India Zarrin Zardar z.zardar@atu.ac.ir 200319475328460071305 200319475328460071305 Yes Department of Social Communication, School of Communication Sciences, Allameh Tabataba'i University, Tehran, Iran Ahmad Hajebi hajebi.a@inms.ac.ir 200319475328460071306 200319475328460071306 No Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Mojgan Khademi daryamkh@yahoo.com 200319475328460071307 200319475328460071307 No Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Med-ical Sciences, Tehran, Iran