Background: Concerns have been raised about the role of the media influencing the public’s understanding of mental illness.
Aim: This study explored the extent and nature of mental health coverage in Qatar’s newspapers. A secondary aim was to compare the mental health-related coverage with that of diabetes.
Methods: This was a retrospective quantitative and qualitative analysis of textual data published in Qatari newspapers. Quantitative descriptive analysis was employed to determine the extent of media coverage while qualitative content analysis was employed to examine the discourse tone and assess the stigmatization of the main messages on the text.
Results: A total of 659 mental health-related articles were published; the main focus of the articles was on autism, depression, and non-pharmacological therapies for mental illness. Analysis of the retrieved articles revealed a predominantly informative content, with mostly non-stigmatizing tone except for non-national news that often linked mental illness with dangerousness or violence. A higher number of articles with mental health-related content than about diabetes were found.
Conclusion: Although the newspaper content analysis revealed mostly a non-stigmatizing tone in mental health reporting in newspapers, there is a need to increase representation of people with mental illness in print media, increase awareness of the diversity of treatments available, and increase more scientific reporting to raise mental health literacy in Qatar.



中文翻译：

---

卡塔尔报纸对精神疾病描述的探索性分析


背景：人们对媒体影响公众对精神疾病的理解的作用表示担忧。

目的：本研究探讨了卡塔尔报纸心理健康报道的范围和性质。第二个目的是将心理健康相关的覆盖范围与糖尿病的覆盖范围进行比较。

方法：这是对卡塔尔报纸上发表的文本数据进行回顾性定量和定性分析。采用定量描述性分析来确定媒体报道的程度，同时采用定性内容分析来检查语气并评估文本主要信息的污名化程度。

结果：共发表心理健康相关文章659篇；这些文章的主要焦点是自闭症、抑郁症和精神疾病的非药物疗法。对检索到的文章的分析显示，内容主要是信息性的，除了经常将精神疾病与危险或暴力联系起来的非全国性新闻外，大多没有污名化的语气。发现与心理健康相关内容的文章数量多于有关糖尿病的文章数量。

结论：虽然报纸内容分析显示报纸上的精神健康报道大多采用非污名化的基调，但有必要增加印刷媒体中精神疾病患者的代表性，提高对现有治疗方法多样性的认识，并增加更科学的治疗方法。报告旨在提高卡塔尔的心理健康素养。