Online news reporting on psychosis and schizophrenia needs to challenge stigma

A new report shows that while the overwhelming majority of articles avoided reinforcing stigma, very few articles actively challenged negative public perceptions

Speaking of his own experience Conor Gavin said: 'When I came out of my first episode when I was 15 or 16, the psychiatrist said to me, ‘You’ve had experience of psychosis, but this doesn’t mean you’re a psychopath.’ It was important for him to make that distinction because of what I might have read up until that point in the media.'

Online news reporting on psychosis and schizophrenia is failing to actively challenge stigma.

In a joint effort between the University of Galway’s PSYcHE project, headed by professor of psychology Gary Donohoe, and Headline, the national programme for responsible reporting on mental ill-health, researchers analysed 656 articles from 2021 that referenced schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, and psychosis.