Representações das demências na imprensa (2001-2010)

In the first year of the 21st century, the World Health Organisation added its weight toWorld Mental Health Day, with a view to stimulating interest in mental disorders, particularly through media coverage. This paper presents the results of a quantitative study on representations of types of dementia in three Portuguese daily newspapers between 2001 and 2010. The author did not want to limit the study to the articles in the health sections and therefore looked at the whole of the newspapers. This revealed a regular coverage of the topic in every section of the papers, especially with regard to Alzheimer's disease, and with a large variety of sources, protagonists and specific subjects. It also demonstrated the existence of an inclusive attitude that is concomitant with an objective handling of the topic. As a whole, Portuguese printed media news about dementias is free of negative stereotypes and tends to give readers enough information and to include dementia among the themes that are both consensual in and important to the public space.