"Use the terms of" schizophrenia, psychosis, psychotic patients in Hong Kong news media : a content analysis of printed coverage, 2002-2012

Abstract

Background/ Objectives: It can always be recognised that mass media is one of key sources of information to society. Moreover, it has a great power to affect our life. Printed media, for example, newspaper as one of media communications contains words and texts, which can also create a strong power to influence readers to receive information, including news coverage of mental illness.

The objective of this study is to analyse our selected the terms of Schizophrenia, Psychosis and Psychotic Patients from our selected three local Chinese newspapers in Hong Kong, to see the frequency and the trend of reporting incidents on news stories, and the use of language/words to portray people with mental illness on press coverage. Research questions were about 1) the change of frequency using the term of Schizophrenia, and under the same question the hypothesis was to see if using the term of Psychosis was more than Schizophrenia; 2) reviewed the term of Schizophrenia to see our selected three local newspapers whether or not choosing the term of Schizophrenia on news coverage more than Psychosis; 3) assessed both terms of Schizophrenia and Psychosis regarding incidents in all articles, the former was related to negative stories and the latter was related to good news coverage. 4) We reviewed the trend of using all keywords akin to metaphorical (words) usage in all articles. At last, 5) we also assessed all keywords in regard to the trend of using of stereotyping wordings in all papers in our selected years.

Method: We assessed the database of retrospective newspaper via WiseNews of electronic resource at the University of Hong Kong, to retrieve the total of 1884 articles, from chosen newspapers, for example, Apple Daily, Ming Pao Daily News and Tai Kung Pao Daily News. We retrieved those newspapers in 2002, 2004, 2007, 2010 and 2012 for our research study.

Results: It is good to see that, since 2001 renaming in Psychosis (思覺失調), the term has been widely accepted in the public and has already been used on news coverage. In comparison with both terms of Schizophrenia (精神分裂 [症]) and Psychosis (思覺失調), we noticed that the frequency of using the name of Schizophrenia on printed media has, however, still remained higher than the term of psychosis to portray people with mental illness in all news papers [Schizophrenia – 40.2% 757/1884 /Psychosis – 24.9% 469/1884]. And we also noted that the term of Psychotic Patients was strong association with people in Schizophrenia to appear on same news coverage, according to our research findings. Meanwhile, it can be seen that using Psychosis (renaming in Chinese) on news coverage was increased gradually from 2002 – 2012, whereas using Schizophrenia was a lead in association with criminal cases, with 35/132 of unfavourable events. On the one hand, it can be noted that the trend of metaphorical usage was increased gradually from 2002 – 2012, and in all newspapers the more frequency of using metaphorical words/usage was to insult/cite someone with 46.2% (175/379 articles). On the other hand, it is not surprising to see that the more frequency of using stereotyping words was “Dangerous” or “Violence” to portray people with mental illness in all newspapers, which was highest record with 61.8% (202/327 counted articles)

Conclusion: Mass media is generally recognised as key source of information to society, including media coverage of mental illness. Moreover, press media has a great power to influence us. In content analysis of our selected articles, it can be noted that in 2002 –2012, using the term of Schizophrenia was more than using Psychosis in our selected three local Chinese newspapers. It was revealed that the trend of using metaphorical (words) usage in all papers was increased gradually and the more frequency using of both terms was to insult/cite someone. It can be no doubt that inappropriate words and negative descriptive languages to portray people with mental illness on news coverage could influence people’s perception with negative towards psychotic patients. Stigma is a great impact on people with mental illness to receive treatment appropriately and can minimise their self-esteem as a result of causing social withdrawal. Family and relatives are also considerably stigmatised. Educational promotion is one of critical ways to promote mental health, to increase more public awareness and knowledge of mental illness in our society.

It could be suggested that training for journalists could be essential, in order to avoid using of sensational or negative descriptive language on news coverage of mental illness that could reduce stigma. We believe that the more people know and receive information accurate on media coverage of mental illness, the less people can form stigma in our society.