Schizophrenia in the News: The Role of News Frames in Shaping Online Reader Dialogue about Mental Illness

Abstract

A quantitative content analysis examined the portrayal of schizophrenia in eight of the most read online news publications in the United States. The analysis documented the prevalence of stigma frames, which communicate stereotypes concerning schizophrenia, and stigma-challenge frames, which contradict stereotypes, in 558 articles related to schizophrenia. The study also examined the relationship between media framing and reader commentary, including the likelihood of readers posting stigmatizing comments, stigma-challenging comments, and comments in which they disclosed personal experience with mental illness. Stigma frames were prevalent in the sample, suggesting the news media continue associating schizophrenia with violent and criminal behavior. Stigma frames stood greater chance of being accompanied by stigmatizing comments from readers when compared to stigma-challenging frames. Conversely, stigma-challenging frames stood greater chance of being accompanied by stigma-challenging comments from readers. Readers were more likely to disclose personal experience with mental illness when they encountered a stigma-challenging frame. Recommendations are made for journalists and health communicators.

A systematic review of the impact of media reports of severe mental illness on stigma and discrimination, and interventions that aim to mitigate any adverse impact

“…Results of the three studies comparing the impact of reading positive, neutral or negative published news reports consistently showed that positive reports that challenged stigma, were informative and focused on recovery, were likely to lead to reductions in stigmatising attitudes, while negative reports that included stereotypes of violence and dangerousness increased stigmatising attitudes [24,32,33]. Further, in an analysis of comments on online news reports, reports that communicated positive information about mental illness were more likely to attract comments of support and stigma-challenging comments from readers, while reports that associated mental illness with violent behavior and quoted people with a mental illness were accompanied by a greater proportion of stigmatising comments [33].…”

“…Of the seven studies investigating the impact of news media, three investigated the impact of positive versus negative portrayals in news reports [24,32,33], two explored the influence of news reports of shootings carried out by a person with a mental illness [34,35], and two investigated the impact of retrospectively recalled news reports on mental illness [36,37]. Of the three experimental studies [24,32,35], two were assessed as having strong methodological quality, while the other was assessed as being weak in quality.…”

“…The third study was conducted by Gwarkanski [33] in the USA and categorized a random sample of 558 online news reports about schizophrenia as either "stigma challenging" or "stigmatising" and explored the impact of this media framing on reader comments on these news reports. "Stigma challenging" news reports attracted a greater proportion of tone-consistent stigma-challenging comments, 29% vs 12%, χ2 (…”

The Effect of Message Cues on Stigmatization and Support: An Examination of Obesity-Related Conversations on Weibo

“…Some scholars probing the relationship between media framing and reader commentary revealed that media consumers are more likely to disclose their personal experiences when the media coverage is framed in a way that challenges stigmatization. (e.g., Gwarjanski & Parrott, 2018). However, the glaring hole exhibited in the extant literature is that extremely limited studies have investigated whether the levels in which a story is told have an impact on the reactions among its consumers.…”

Prime and prejudice: Brief stereotypical media representations can increase prejudicial attitudes and behaviour towards people with schizophrenia

“…The evidence suggests that community attitudes to mental illness are appreciably influenced by the cumulative effect of this media exposure (see Pirkis & Francis, , for a review). This negative depiction is particularly true of schizophrenia, where both entertainment (Owen, ) and news media (Clement & Foster, ; Gwarjanski & Parrott, ) frequently associate the condition with violent incidents.…”