[Tranquilizers in the newspaper. An media analysis]

For the public the image of psychopharmacological drugs is identical with that of minor tranquilizers. The way of describing and portraying these drugs in the media therefore is of general interest.

Ten annual volumes of six German language opinion leading daily and weekly papers which exist on CD-Rom in full text editions are screened for the key word "minor tranquilizer". The articles identified are analyzed formally quantatively and qualitatively.

The ten annual volumes analyzed contained 45 articles in which tranquilizers were mentioned (4.5 per annual volume). The key words were found in all sections of the papers, most often, however, in the cultural section, followed by the science section. Regarding the themes medicine and law were in the first position (one third), but society, arts and culture and politics contained even more articles dealing with the key word minor tranquilizer. For fifth of the articles only mentioned the key word. Only once minor tranquilizers are the main topic of the article. Tranquilizers are valued negatively ten times as often as they are valued positively. In two fifth of the articles the term is employed as a metaphor. Even in this context minor tranquilizers are valued negatively (10:1).

Three fourth of the articles, employing the term in the non metaphorical way, deal with abuse and dependency. The public image of minor tranquilizers in the media is mainly characterized by their potency to cause dependency.