Stigmatization for Schizophrenia in Turkish National Newspaper News

The contribution of press publications cannot be denied in the social perception of schizophrenia. The purpose of this study was to investigate the number and quality of news about “schizophrenia” in high-selling national daily newspapers. This research planned by the qualitative content analysis method, seven newspaper archives which were published between 01.04.2014 and 01.04.2019 were analyzed by using the keyword. In the five-year review, a total of 626 news items were found. The contents of the news were separated according to their similarities. The contents were collected by the researchers under five main themes (crime, scientific content, social activity, metaphorical use, and magazine). Two themes (metaphorical use and crime) thought to be related to stigmatization were analyzed again. The crime theme was grouped eleven sub-themes. These sub-themes were murder, fear / horror, suicide, hostage-taking, insanity, masacre, injury, arson, brutality, abuse, and others. 30.7 % of the news was published in 2015, 39.3% in Milliyet newspaper, and 66.3% in the newspaper's agenda page. When the news in newspapers were examined, it was found that 58‘1% was in negative emotional tone, 48.9% was a crime, 11.7% schizophrenia is used metaphorically, and 51.9% had “schizophrenia” in the news headline. In the news title, it was found that 46.3% of the words “savagery, murder, horror, massacre, insanity, etc.” were used and 53.7% of these words were used with the word “murder”. It was seen that the photos of the patients were given 33.7 % in the newspaper news and 53.7% in the identity information. In conclusion, it can be said that the news about schizophrenia is mostly used with the content of crime, negative emotional tone and the title was “murder”, it contributes to the negative perception and stigmatization of schizophrenia with its negative content. In the light of this information, it is suggested that the press publications should be in a way to prevent stigmatization in informing the public about schizophrenia, the necessary audits should be increased and the awareness-raising activities of mental health associations in this field should be increased.

Keywords

Psychiatric Nursing, Schizophrenia, Stigmatization, Newspaper News, National News, Fight against Stigma