The Media: Representations: Disability Flashcards
What did Shakespeare argue?
Disability should be seen as a social construction. The media uses disability as a character trait or part of the plot which is a lazy shprt cut to get people engaged.
How many people are disabled vs portrayed in the media?
1/4 of adults but only 2.5% represented in the media. This can be linked to symbolic annihilation.
What did Cumberbatch et al find?
When undertaking content analysis he found that 2/3 of cases a person’s impairment was part of their character.
Why can it be argued that disabled people are portrayed from the perspective of a white male middle class person?
Because they’re the type of person that controls the media, therefore disabled people are portrayed as beinga problem by the “media gaze.”
What did OFCOM find?
42% of people with disabilities appearing in programmes did so to highlight issues of prejudice stereotyping and discrimination.
What’s two sociological ways of viewing disability?
- People with disabilities are disabled by their physical and or mental impairments suggesting they need constant care from both medical practitioners and their families. 2. People with disabilities are actually made disabled by society due to the fact that social institutions, facilities and services are not made with disabilities in mind.
What did Barnes identify as the 4 reccuring stereotypes of disabled people in the media?
- As pathetic and a burden to community life which has risen due to documentaries such as panorama ones. 2. As sinister and evil such as James Bond villain. 3. As super cripples like Sheldon Cooper or the good doctor. 4. As an object of ridicule like Joe in family guy.
What did Bryant et al and the GUMG find?
The proportion of articles sympathetic to people with disabilities had reduced and proportion of one’s linked to benefit fraud had doubled.
What did researchers Ross and Sancho find?
Both viewers with and without disabilities were critical of the way people in the media were shown with disabilities. Children particularly were annoyed by the lack of reality in things like a miracle cure.
What was Philo and the GUMGs time to change study?
Found that television and press reporting of people’s disabilities often focuses on violent incidents despite the fact that the minority of people with mental health difficulties are actually violent. However the GUMG found that soaps and TV dramas had slowly began to move away from this.
What did Rapper say about the effects of telethons?
People have began to see disabled people as every day people. ( a telethon is a long television programme that is typically made to raise money for charity.
How can the paralympics be used?
There is not as much coverage as there is for the main Olympics however it also shows how they are gaining standing in the media.
