Effects of episodic versus thematic framings on the public’s stigma towards autism

Purpose This study aims to investigate how framing a news article differently could affect the public’s stigma towards autism. Design/methodology/approach A total of 117 adult participants were randomly assigned to one of the two conditions where they read a news article framed: (1) episodically; or (2) thematically. The news articles as experimental stimuli were derived from a real news article on Channel NewsAsia that had received the most views on the topic about autism over the period 2022 to 2023. Participants filled out the pre- and post-test questionnaires including the Bogardus Social Distance scale as the measure of stigma towards autism. Findings Results indicated that reading the news article, either thematically or episodically framed, significantly increased the public’s stigma towards autism, reflected on the social distance measure. Reading a news article framed episodically increased public’s stigma towards autism more than reading a news article framed thematically. Qualitative feedback suggests that participants thought the news articles were generally negatively written, which could have contributed to the increased stigma. Originality/value This study was an initial attempt to experimentally examine how news articles written in different ways could influence the public’s stigma towards autism. The findings highlight that the issue regarding media coverage of autism deserves more attention.