"Bloodshed" and "schizophrenic politics". Stigmatization of schizophrenia in four leading German newspapers from the year 2011

The role of printed media in the maintenance of stigmatization has been a subject of debate for several years now. As for stigmatization of schizophrenia, previous research has frequently focused on stereotypes in newspaper articles and the metaphoric use of the word "schizophrenic" for something contradictory, aloof or ridiculous. The objective of this study was to quantify the frequency of stigmatizing articles with regard to the specific type of stigmatizing content in German broadsheets and tabloids. A total of 391 articles extracted from the entirety of all issues of the Suddeutsche Zeitung, Spiegel, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and the tabloid BILD from 2011 were content-analyzed for stereotypes, false statements and metaphoric use of schizophrenia. Stigmatizing elements were prevalent in each newspaper (40.4-66.7 %). Among broadsheets the metaphoric use constituted the predominant form of stigmatization, whereas depictions of persons with schizophrenia as dangerous and unpredictable prevailed in the tabloid BILD. Metaphoric use and blatant discrimination are still highly prevalent in German newspapers. While metaphoric use may be stopped by renaming the disorder schizophrenia, further efforts are needed to raise awareness for and ultimately prevent the reification of stereotypes in printed media.