ABSTRACT
Chapter 4 takes a similar approach to the previous one, although rather than looking at differences between newspapers, it looks at differences across time. It starts by exploring four linguistic features which were tracked over time in Clement and Foster’s (2008) landmark study: metaphorical uses of schizophrenic (adj.), stigmatising descriptors (maniac, nutter), equating descriptors (a schizophrenic) and the use of the verb released to refer to patients being discharged from hospital. In contrast to previous studies which found no significant change, the analysis here suggests that use of all of these features declined between 2000 and 2015. It is, however, acknowledged that this does not mean the reportage as a whole is improving. The latter part of the analysis takes on a similar structure to the previous chapter by examining the top 25 keywords for each year across time to identify topics distinctive to each year in the dataset.
