Violence, mental disorders and drug use: characterization of reports in the Brazilian media

• Grant number: 16/25142-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: May 01, 2017
• End date: April 30, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Nursing - Psychiatric Nursing
• Principal Investigator: Jacqueline de Souza
• Grantee: Larissa Giovanna Cazella
• Host Institution: Escola de Enfermagem de Ribeirão Preto (EERP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Ribeirão Preto , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The News broadcasted by mass media in general is loaded with simplistic interpretations and dangerousness stereotypes. When analyzed in detail, the sensationalism of such news does not correspond to reality and they reinforce the common sense and perpetuation of stigmatization of the drug user or of the individual with mental disorder. Another common conception is the negativist idea that mental disorders are incapacitating disorders and that they make the individual unfit to live in the society because they do not fit into the surroundings. In view of the above, the objective of the present study is to analyze how the Brazilian print media reports cases of violence related to mental disorders or drug use in the period from 2009 to 2014. This is a quantitative study in which a descriptive synthesis will be realized on the news from two Brazilian newspapers obtained electronically from the Lexis Nexis Academic® database, considering those who mentioned the following terms: violence, mental disorder, mental illness, drugs. The data analysis will be performed starting from an automatic tabulation that the electronic form provides, and descriptive statistics, charts and tables and association tests will be used considering the following variables: the news mentions causal nexus between violence and disorder (yes or no) versus individual who has the disorder (the aggressor or the victim); Outcome for the aggressor (punished or not) versus the relationship of the aggressor to the victim (family member or not); Aggressor with mental disorder (yes or no) versus previous history of aggression (yes or no). The study seeks to collaborate with a better understanding of the influence that the media has on the construction, or rupture, of stigmas of violence related to mental disorders or drug use.

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

SOUZA, JACQUELINE DE; ALMEIDA, LETICIA YAMAWAKA DE; OLIVEIRA, JAQUELINE LEMOS DE; CAZELLA, LARISSA GIOVANNA; GUIRAL, ELAINE CRISTINA VILIONI DE SOUZA; GAINO, LORAINE VIVIAN; STROBBE, STEPHEN. Violence, drugs, and psychiatric disorders: news from the Brazilian press. JOURNAL OF ETHNICITY IN SUBSTANCE ABUSE, NOV 2020. (16/25142-0)

SOUZA, JACQUELINE DE; ALMEIDA, LETICIA YAMAWAKA DE; OLIVEIRA, JAQUELINE LEMOS DE; CAZELLA, LARISSA GIOVANNA; GUIRAL, ELAINE CRISTINA VILIONI DE SOUZA; GAINO, LORAINE VIVIAN; STROBBE, STEPHEN. Violence, drugs, and psychiatric disorders: news from the Brazilian press. JOURNAL OF ETHNICITY IN SUBSTANCE ABUSE, v. 21, n. 4, p. 12-pg., 2020-11-18. (16/25142-0)