Disability Flashcards
Barnes’ representations of disability…
Barnes (1992) argues that mass media representations of disability have generally been oppressive and negative. People with disabilities are rarely presented as people with their own identities. Barnes notes several common media representations of people with disabilities.
8 representations…
1) In need of pity and charity
2) Victims
3) Villains
4) Super-cripples
5) Burden
6) Sexually abnormal
7) Incapable of participating fully in community life
8) Ordinary or normal
In need of pity or charity…
In need of pity and charity – Barnes claims that this stereotype has grown in popularity in recent years because of television appeals such as Children in Need.
Victims…
As victims – Barnes found that when people with disabilities are featured in television drama, they are three times more likely than able-bodied characters to be killed off.
Villains…
As villains – people with disabilities are often portrayed as criminals or monsters, e.g. villains in James Bond films often have a physical impairment.
Super-cripples…
As super-cripples – Barnes notes that people with disabilities are often portrayed as having special powers or as overcoming their impairment and poverty. In Hollywood films, the impaired male body is often visually represented as a perfect physical specimen in a wheelchair.
Ross notes that disability issues have to be sensational, unexpected or heroic in order to be interpreted by journalists as newsworthy and reported on.
Burden…
As a burden – television documentaries and news features often focus on carers rather than the people with disabilities.
Sexually abnormal…
As sexually abnormal – it is assumed by media representations that people with disabilities do not have sexual feelings or that they are sexually degenerate.
Incapable of fully participating in community life…
As incapable of participating fully in community life – Barnes calls this the stereotype of omission and notes that people with disabilities are rarely shown as integral and productive members of the community such as students, teachers or parents.
Ordinary or normal…
As ordinary or normal – Barnes argues that the media rarely portrays people with disabilities as normal people who just happen to have a disability. They consequently fail to reflect the real, everyday experience of disability.
Are telethons helpful?…
Roper (2003) suggests that mass media representations of disability on telethons can create problems for people with disabilities and suggests that telethons over-rely on ‘cute’ children who are not that representative of the range of people with disabilities in Britain.
Roper argues that telethons are primarily aimed at encouraging the general public to alleviate their guilt and their relief that they are not disabled, by giving money rather than informing the general public of the facts about disability.
Telethons confirming prejudice…
Karpf (1988) suggests that there is a need for charities, but that telethons act to keep the audience in the position of givers and to keep recipients in their place as grateful and dependent.
Karpf notes that telethons are about entertaining the public, rather than helping us to understand the everyday realities of what it is like to have a disability.
Consequently, these media representations merely confirm social prejudices about people with disabilities, e.g. that they are dependent on the help of able-bodied people.
Longmore on telethons…
Paul Longmore (2016) suggests that telethons historically present disabled children as people who are unable to participate fully in community life (sports/ sexuality) unless they are ‘fixed’.
Telethons put the audience in the position of givers and reinforce the idea that the disable receivers should be dependent on their able bodied donors.
Because telethons are primarily about raising money rather than raising awareness of the reality of being disabled, they may end up reinforcing stereotypes of disabled people.
What about the news?…
Williams-Findlay (2009) conducted an analysis of The Times and The Guardian to see whether the coverage of the disabled had changed between 1989 and 2009.
Findings show the use of stereotypical words had declined in those 20 years, but that stereotypical representations were still present in 2009 because journalists still assumed that disability was ‘tragic’.
Watson et al’s 4 key findings…
Conducted similar research on tabloid media coverage of disability in five newspapers in 2004-5 with coverage in 2010-11 they found 4 key things:
1) There had been a significant increase in the reporting of disability.
2) The proportion of articles reporting disability in sympathetic and deserving terms had fallen.
3) In 2010-11 the reporting of groups with mental disabilities was particularly negative, often associated with them being welfare scroungers.
4) Articles focusing on disability benefit fraud increased threefold between 2005 and 2011.
