Abstract
BackgroundA content analysis was used to describe the association between psychiatric disorders and aggression in the printed media in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.MethodsArticles were chosen from the most widely read daily newspapers and magazines in both countries during five one-week periods in 2007. A coding manual was developed and a content analysis was performed. Aggressive behavior was assessed by two separate categories - the role of the mentally ill person in the violent act (perpetrator/victim) and the type of aggressive act (homicide, suicide).ResultsA total of 375 articles were analyzed. Main findings: 1) The proportion of articles depicting psychiatric disorders together with either self- or other-directed aggressive behavior is 31.2%; 2) Homicide was most frequently mentioned in the context of psychotic disorders and schizophrenia, while affective disorders were most frequently associated with both completed suicides and homicides; 3) Eating disorders and anxiety disorders were seldom associated with any kind of aggressive behavior, including self-harm; 4) The vast majority of articles presented mentally ill people as perpetrators, and these articles were more often coded as stigmatizing. 5) Articles with aggressive behavior mentioned on the cover are roughly as frequent as those with aggressive behavior in the later sections of the media (36.7% vs. 30.7%).ConclusionsThe results are similar to the findings in countries with longer histories of consistent advocacy for improved depiction of mental illness in the media. However, we have shown that persons with mental illness are still over-portrayed as perpetrators of violent crimes, especially homicides.
Highlights
A content analysis was used to describe the association between psychiatric disorders and aggression in the printed media in the Czech Republic and Slovakia
The results are similar to the findings in countries with longer histories of consistent advocacy for improved depiction of mental illness in the media
We have shown that persons with mental illness are still over-portrayed as perpetrators of violent crimes, especially homicides
Summary
Our study sample comprised articles pertaining to the topic of psychiatric disorders chosen from the six most widely read printed newspapers and magazines in both countries. This sampling is a combination of purposive sampling [24] focusing on key media, using only the six most read print media, stratified composite sampling, randomly selecting units over a time period (stratification by weeks or days) which has been identified as the most accurate sampling method for analysing media publications [25], and after stratification by weeks or days the third step included relevance sampling [26], sampling of relevant content from those media based on a keywords search and the association of the article with psychiatric disorders, either as the main subject of the article or a sideline to another story These articles were further analyzed according to the PICMIN instrument’s initial version developed for the purpose of this study [27]. All statistical analyses except the Monte Carlo test were carried out with SAS 9.1 statistical software package
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