Data shared: 

Online news content from 2020, 2021 and January-May 2022 which mentions schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or related keywords 

Proposed research: 

The purpose of this collaboration is to combine Headline’s online news data with SAMI’s expertise in statistics and data analysis, to identify novel hypotheses and analyses that could be undertaken straight away on this dataset, leading to novel findings relating to online news coverage of mental ill health, new publications, and identification of analysis strategies Headline could use to analyse similar data in the future. Data is also being collected from Twitter to identify attitudes and beliefs about mental ill health that are expressed on the platform. A comparison of online news data and online social media data could identify any trends, overlap or differences between the two. This would help to inform us as to the best ways to target stigma reduction. We may, for instance, need one method for news outlet media, and a different method for social media. Longer term, Headline and SAMI would aim to better understand specific attitudes and beliefs relating to mental health difficulties such as schizophrenia (such as associations with violence) with the aim of developing tools, campaigns, and protocols aimed at challenging these attitudes and beliefs in the Irish media. 

Status: Early exploratory stage.