'Schizophrenia' as a metaphor in greek newspaper websites




Athanasopoulou C, Välimäki M

Mantas J, Househ MS, Hasman A

International Conference on Informatics, Management, and Technology in Healthcare (ICIMTH)

2014

Studies in Health Technology and Informatics

Integrating Information Technology and Management for Quality of Care

202

275

278

4

978-1-61499-422-0

978-1-61499-423-7

0926-9630

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.3233/978-1-61499-423-7-275



Often, newspapers use the term ‘schizophrenia’ as a metaphor with negative connotations. The use of the term in Greek newspapers, has never been investigated. The aim of this study is to examine how the term ‘schizophrenia’ is used in Greek newspaper websites. For 2014, ‘To Vima’, ‘Kathimerini’, and ‘Eleftherotypia’, were the most popular newspaper websites. By searching the term ‘schizophrenia’ in Greek (‘σχιζoφρενεια’), the first fifty results were collected from the three websites (N=150). Deductive content analysis was applied. Out of the included articles (N=140), the majority were news (n=39, 28%), while more than a third (n=48, 34%) reported schizophrenia as a metaphor. The metaphoric use of ‘schizophrenia’ indicated predominately incoherence/contradiction/split (n=43, 90%). Monitoring how schizophrenia is presented within popular media is crucial, since it could influence public perceptions regarding the disorder. Continual use of schizophrenia as a metaphor could contribute to maintaining the stigma attached to mental illness.



Last updated on 2024-26-11 at 19:58