Media and Disability Interest Group
An Analysis of the Dissimilar Coverage of the 2002 Olympics and Paralympics: Frenzied Pack Journalism versus the Empty Press Room • Ann Golden, Brigham Young University • This article analyzes the differing amounts of coverage reporters gave to the 2002 Olympics versus the 2002 Paralympics (the Olympics for the disabled). A content analysis of ten newspapers, a month-long field study at the Olympic/Paralympic media centers and twenty qualitative interviews were utilized as tools to analyze the differing paradigms of selected Olympic and Paralympic reporters concerning the following disability-related issues: audience appeal and interest, pack journalism versus independent reporting, and the newsworthiness of Paralympic events.
Are Disability Images in Advertising Becoming Bold and Daring? An Analysis of Prominent Themes in U.S. and UK Campaigns • Beth A. Haller, Towson and Sue Ralph, Manchester, UK • Advertisements featuring people with disabilities have become more prevalent in America and Great Britain in the last decade. The goal of this paper is to investigate if images are remaining static (focusing solely on integration) or are expanding to show a variety of themes. This qualitative analysis revealed that several leaps forward have occurred, such as the themes of empowerment in a Cingular ad and the themes of disability pride/inclusion in Doritos, Kohler, B&Q, Marks & Spencer, and HSBC ads.
The Invisible Victims: Newspaper Coverage of Physician-Assisted Suicide and People with Disabilities • Kimberly A. Lauffer, Towson • One group of people affected by Jack Kervorkian’s crusade for legalized assisted suicide has largely been ignored by the mainstream press: people with disabilities. This paper will examine how disability and people with disabilities were portrayed in Michigan newspaper coverage of physician-assisted suicide from 1996-1999. Overall, people with disabilities were portrayed in ways that perpetuated negative stereotypes about disability.
Not Limitation, but Variation: Exploring the Effects of Media Framing on Reduction of Prejudice against Disability • Jong-Eun Roselyn Lee, Pennsylvania • This study aims at examining the effects of media framing of disability on perspective-taking and reduction of prejudice against disabled people. The findings suggest that Human Variation Frame, which defines disability as one of the various human conditions, evokes higher level of perspective-taking, which, in turn, plays a mediating role in reducing prejudice in both cognitive and affective dimensions. This study concludes that the mass media should contribute to redefining disability as human variation, and motivating the non-disabled to accept the disabled people not as “them” but as “us.”