A Two-Year Cross-Sectional Study on the Information About Schizophrenia Divulged by a Prestigious Daily Newspaper

Abstract

Media is an important source of information about mental health for the public. The current study analyzed the information about schizophrenia divulged by the largest Brazilian newspaper. A content analysis examined articles on health and news involving affected individuals or suspected cases. The articles were rated against indicators of poor quality reporting and of effective health communication. The presence of myths was examined. The search identified 687 articles, 75 of which fulfilled the inclusion/exclusion criteria and were selected. The themes with the highest number of articles were mental disorders and violence, treatment, and etiology. Three articles described the social inclusion stories of affected individuals. The coverage addressed genetic factors, drug-induced psychosis risk, and antipsychotic benefits, which may contribute to stigma reduction toward treatment. However, the articles divulged stigmatizing messages, and the entire complexity of the disorder was not discussed. Dangerousness was a common theme, which may invalidate positive messages about social inclusion.

Public stigmatization of different mental disorders: a comprehensive attitude survey

“…The independent impact of perceived dangerousness as a very important mediator of stigma has been stressed by various authors (Link et al 1999;Martin et al 2000). However, one must also note that such effects of labelling are undoubtedly shaped and biased through the influence of the media (Dubugras et al 2011) or by socio-cultural characteristics (Abdullah & Brown, 2011;Hengartner et al 2012). Stigma is per definition deeply embedded and entrenched with different socio-cultural characteristics, beliefs and values.…”

Print Media Coverage of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: Content Analysis of Three Major Korean Newspapers

“…Previous research has indicated that concern exists for inaccurate information and portrayal of negative image of mental illness in the media (20-23). A Canadian study investigated information provided by web sites on treatment of schizophrenia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and found that the quality was generally poor and misleading (24).…”

“…However, the content of articles dealing with this illness has not been a subject of scientific investigation. Most studies involved mental disorder in general, violence by the individuals with the serious mental illness, or schizophrenia (20, 21, 25). We were interested to find out whether the number of articles describing PTSD in the Korean print media continues to grow and how accurately and appropriately the newspapers report the cause, the symptoms and treatment of PTSD.…”

Effect of Name Change of Schizophrenia on Mass Media Between 1985 and 2013 in Japan: A Text Data Mining Analysis

“…[4][5][6][7] Such articles are published at a higher rate than that for physical illness. 8 Of these, schizophrenia and psychosis are focused on stigmatization from mass media articles, [9][10][11][12] and had the highest rate of negative contexts compared with other psychiatric diseases. 9,11 As schizophrenia is thought to be one of the most stigmatized diseases compared with physical and psychiatric diseases, more appropriate information along with positive and recovery-oriented impressions through mass media are mandatory to promote early detection and care for young people suffering from schizophrenia and psychosis.…”