Disability

Question 1

Cumberbatch

Answer 1

in a content analysis of the most popular TV programmes in 2013-14, found that people portrayed as disabled represented just 2.5% of the television population (compared to 1 in 5 in the real world)

Question 2

Sancho

Answer 2

found that the wheelchair is often used as an ‘icon’ or index of disability by those wishing to represent disability in the media

Question 3

GUMG

Answer 3

found, from a content analysis carried out in the first three months of 2014, encouraging signs that TV soaps, dramas and sitcoms were beginning to move away from the ‘mad and bad’ stereotypes of mental illness that Philo and et al found in 2010

Question 4

Longmore

Answer 4

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.

Question 5

Gauntlett

Answer 5

suggests that sociological theories of media need to be careful because of the sheer diversity of media in the UK- cannot generalise e.g. representations more positive on the BBC Channel 4 and Channel 5