P-582 - Media portraits of persons with mental disorders

Abstract

The aim of this study was to analyze media reports about persons with mental disorders. The study was conducted by analyzing articles published in three daily newspapers in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the period from 2004 until 2010. Newspaper articles were collected from the digital archive of “Media-centre of Sarajevo”, using the following key words: mental illness, schizophrenia, psychiatry. For the analysis used were indicators derived from directions for media reporting on mental health: metaphorical use of the term schizophrenia, use of stigmatizing descriptions, not including information while specifying violence risks within articles about violence, and use of the term “release”.Out of totally 284 articles which concerned persons with mental disorders, within 95.4% of them journalists wrote about violence committed by persons with mental disorders. The majority of articles (66.5%) included detailed description of direct violent behaviour of persons with mental disorders towards property, objects or themselves. Within 62 articles described were manners in which homicide was committed, while in 23.4% described were manners of committing suicide. Most articles contained stigmatizing descriptions and information while specifying violence risks was not included. The term “release” from a hospital was significantly more used by neighbours, family members, journalists and social workers than psychiatrists and psychologists (p