REPRESENTATİON OF INDİVİDUALS WİTH MENTAL ILLNESS ON HÜRRİYET AND SABAH NEWS SİTES

Abstract

This study examined how people with mental illnesses are portrayed in the news. It has been seen in the literature review on the subject that the studies examining the representation of mental illness in the national press are limited. This situation constitutes the importance of the study. The main purposes of the study are to determine how the national press portrays individuals with mental illness and to reveal the negative fiction in news texts and visuals. The news websites of “Hürriyet” and “Sabah” newspapers were chosen as the sample. The news on the websites of the relevant newspapers, whose subjects are individuals with mental illnesses, were examined for six months, from January to June 2021. Both qualitative and quantitative content analysis methods were applied in the study. It has been found that descriptive titles are generally used in the news, the subject of the news is generally mental health and police/judicial issues, that the news is usually conveyed in the form of long news, and that the source is generally healthcare professionals and news agencies.