Content analysis of Canadian newspapers articles and readers’ comments related to schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a complex biochemical brain disorder with significant prevalence rates. People suffering from schizophrenia are stigmatized in the society at both the personal and institutional level. With newspapers (print and electronic) serving as the voice of the masses, people with schizophrenia are often negatively represented. In this study we collected all articles of the year 2014 from top-10 online available English language Canadian newspapers by using schizophrenia as a keyword. Readers’ comments and social media sharing information of each of the articles were also collected. Inclusion-exclusion criteria and coding schema were developed to select and categorize relevant articles and comments. Statistical analyses were performed to see the relation of social media sharing with different categories of articles. Our study revealed that news of crime and violence by people with schizophrenia hold the highest representation; subsequently, in these type of articles most of the readers’ comments were negative. On the other hand, readers mentioned positive comments and showed sympathy for those who are suffering from the stigma. This study unveiled how schizophrenia is presented in the articles of top-10 online available English language Canadian newspapers. Also, the analysis of readers’ comments and sharing in social media were a reflection of readers’ reaction to schizophrenia and people with schizophrenia.