IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/socpsy/v68y2022i7p1351-1362.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Mental disorders in the media: A retrospective study of newspaper coverage in the Chilean Press

Author

Listed:
  • Pamela Grandón
  • Dany Fernández Vega
  • Alejandro Antonio Sánchez Oñate
  • Alexis Vladimir Vielma Aguilera
  • Loreto Villagrán Valenzuela
  • Daisy Vidal Gutiérrez
  • Carolina Inostroza Rovengno
  • Rob Whitley

Abstract

Background: The mass media are relevant in shaping the population’s attitudes towards mental disorders. In low- and middle-income countries there is little information about the portrayal of people with mental disorders in the mass media. Aim: The general objective of the study was to assess the tone and content of Chilean newspaper articles about mental disorder from 2000 to 2019. Method: The digital editions of four national circulation Chilean newspapers were intentionally selected. The search engine Google News was used to identify and retrieve the news. To evaluate the news, a standardised codebook was administered. A total of 385 news were evaluated. Results: The results show that a large proportion of the news items has an overall positive/optimistic tone 43.5% and 57.5% does not stigmatise; however, only 18.4% emphasises recovery as part of the content. The highest percentages of news stigmatising in tone and content are observed for bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Furthermore, the experts are quoted much more frequently than people diagnosed with mental disorders or their families and/or friends. When comparing by years there is a trend towards general decrease in stigmatisation, moving towards a more positive or optimistic view of mental health, Conclusions: In general, low stigmatisation towards mental disorders was found in the news and this was reduced steadily over time. Although there are aspects to improve in some particular areas, suggesting that manifest stigma has diminished, but more subtle forms still remain.

Suggested Citation

  • Pamela Grandón & Dany Fernández Vega & Alejandro Antonio Sánchez Oñate & Alexis Vladimir Vielma Aguilera & Loreto Villagrán Valenzuela & Daisy Vidal Gutiérrez & Carolina Inostroza Rovengno & Rob, 2022. "Mental disorders in the media: A retrospective study of newspaper coverage in the Chilean Press," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 68(7), pages 1351-1362, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:socpsy:v:68:y:2022:i:7:p:1351-1362
    DOI: 10.1177/00207640211023086
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00207640211023086
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/00207640211023086?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ozgur Sema Aci & Emre Ciydem & Hulya Bilgin & Zeynep Ozaslan & Seda Tek, 2020. "Turkish newspaper articles mentioning people with mental illness: A retrospective study," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 66(3), pages 215-224, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.

      Corrections

      All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:socpsy:v:68:y:2022:i:7:p:1351-1362. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

      If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

      If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

      If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

      For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

      Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

      IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.