The picture of mental illness in the print media in three central European countries

Media are considered to be the public's primary source of information regarding mental illness. Evidence suggests that media representations of people with psychiatric disorders are frequently negative and contribute to their stigmatization. On the other hand, media can play an important role in reducing this stigmatisation by providing adequate information about this topic and engaging in antistigma campaigns. Up to now there was no standardised measurement of the stigma of mental illness in print media using clearly operationalized definitions. The objectives of this project were twofold; to develop a standardised and objective instrument to measure stigma of mental illness in print media; and to conduct an analysis of the current coverage on mental health/illness issues in Czech, Croatian, and Slovak print media. The development of the Picture of Mental Illness in Newspapers (PICMIN) instrument was based on the principles of content analysis, a research technique for making replicable and valid inferences from text to the kontext in their use. The instrument consists of eleven descriptive and five analytical categories. The most interesting findings based on the analysis of media representations of mental illness were; a similarly high level of stigmatizing articles across countries, clearly..