ULUSAL HABER WEB SİTELERİNDE KİŞİLİK BOZUKLUKLARININ DAMGALAMA AÇISINDAN İNCELENMESİ

Abstract

Societies consider the media as an important source of information on psychological disorders. Evaluated from this perspective, the content of news in the media may contribute to an increase in stigmatization. This study aims to examine the news related to personality disorders on the most traffic-receiving news websites in Turkey in terms of stigmatization. The content analysis method was employed in this research. Relevant news between January 1, 2019, and January 1, 2023, were included and evaluated. The news was segregated by researchers into four main themes: informative, crime-related, culture/art/events, and entertainment) based on similarities in content. In terms of stigmatization, the news content was assessed under headings such as murder, violence, threat/harassment, and others (deception, fraud, self-harm). The news content scanned in four media outlets between 2019 and 2023 was classified as negative or neutral. 54.26% of the news was negative, while 45.74% was neutral. According to the data, 54.26% of the news was negative, while 45.74% was neutral. The utilization of murder was observed in 20.00% of news articles with negative content, while violence was present in 25.71% of such articles. Among the negatively toned news, 20.00% was associated with murder, 25.71% with violence, 18.57% with threat/harassment, and 35.72% with other forms of stigmatization (deception, fraud, self-harm). In 60.00% of the news, the person’s photograph was included, while 54.29% included the person's name. These statistics suggest that these topics were employed to stigmatize certain individuals or groups. Photographic representations of individuals were employed in 60.00% of the news articles, while the mention of individuals’ names was seen in 54.29% of the news articles. Considering the scope of the issue and the stigmatizing content in the media, these results support the need for strong national and international alliances against stigma to coordinate the linguistic content in the news.