Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
Abstract Background and Hypothesis Stigma toward individuals with schizophrenia is well documented, yet the extent to which stigmatizing views are present in media remains understudied. This study investigates sentiment and violence-related content in US news coverage. We hypothesize that media with schizophrenia-related keywords will have higher negative and lower positive ratings, and more violent ratings than news for illnesses of comparable burden. Study Design We conducted an observational comparative content analysis on 116 866 news transcripts from CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC (2016-2023). Sentiment ratings were derived using a roBERTa large language model, and violence-related language was measured using a dictionary-based natural language processing tool (LIWC-22). Study Results News related to schizophrenia demonstrated significantly higher negative sentiment (β = 0.078, t (4061) = 6.85, P .001), lower positive sentiment (β = −0.10, t (4061) = −11.55, P .001), and higher violent content (β = 0.14, t (4061) = 3.31, P .001) compared to news on comparable illnesses. Additionally, schizophrenia-related keywords were used in clinical contexts significantly less often (SZ = 48.49%, ILL = 97.84%, Χ2(1) = 1276.4, P .001). Conclusions The results indicate a pervasive association between schizophrenia and negative, violent language in media, reinforcing existing stigma. These findings highlight a need for interventions targeting media portrayal to reduce public stigma against individuals with schizophrenia.
Serra et al. (2026) studied this question.