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Briant et al. (2011)
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These sociologists of the Glasgow Media Group (GMG) found, in a study comparing media coverage of disability in 5 newspapers in 2010-2011 with a similar period in 2004-2005, that there had been a reduction in the proportion of articles describing disabled people in sympathetic and deserving terms, particularly those with mental health-related disabilities: -The proportion of articles linking disability to benefit fraud had more than doubled in 5 years, and nearly 1 in 5 articles discussed disability using terms like 'scrounger', 'cheat' and 'skiver', including the idea that life on benefits had become a 'lifestyle choice' for some disabled people, suggesting such people were 'undeserving'. |
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Impairment
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This is some loss, limitation or difference of functioning of the body or mind, either that one is born with or arising from injury or disease.
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David Gauntlett (2008)
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This postmodernist sociologist points out that all sociological theories of media representations need to be cautious in their approach because of the sheer diversity of media that exist in the UK: -It is difficult, if not impossible, to generalise these critiques to all types of media. -For example, television representations of disability may be positive on the BBC and Channel 4 but negative on Channel 5 and in tabloid newspapers. |
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Cumberbatch et al. (2014)
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These sociologists, in a content analysis of the most popular TV programmes in 2013-2015, found that people portrayed as disabled represented just 2.5% of the television population, compared to more than 1 in 5 in the real world: -In 2/3 of cases, the impairment played a part in the participant's on-screen portrayal - they appeared either as or playing disabled people, rather than as people or characters who happened to have an impairment, but which had no relation to their role in the programme. -Over 80% of the impairments portrayed were related to mobility, sensory impairments, disfigurement and physical or mental illnesses/impairments. -Over 1/3 of participants with impairments in the programmes they reviewed were seen using disability aids, with wheelchairs (including wheel trollies and motorises shopping buggies) seen most often, followed by sticks and crutches. |
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Social Change
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This has impacted on media representations of disability: -Channel 4 Superhumans TV ad - for the 2016 Rio Paralympics, featured many impaired people doing things which are stereotypically seen as the 'norm' for non-impaired people. -Strictly Come Dancing 2021: Rose Ayling-Ellis became the first deaf winner. -TikTok: Lucy Edwards: popular TikTok influencer - is blind. -Latecomers: this series has depicted sexual acts by people with impairments. -Call the Midwife: has a character with Down Syndrome called Reggie since season 6 in 2017. |
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Social Constructionist School of Disability
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Sociologists who belong to this school, such as Barnes, argue that it is important to understand that the social reaction to people with impairments produces the social condition and experience of disability.
The Social Constructionist theory argues that impaired individuals are disabled by society and that mass media representations play a significant part in that process - they argue that there are 3 main reasons why mass media representations of disability take the form they do: 1. Medical professionals set the agenda for media portrayal of disability - they are at the top of the hierarchy of credibility - their view that disability is unhealthy, unfortunate and tragic and that disabled individuals are dependent upon others, dominates journalists' perspectives on disability despite the fact that these are non-disabled assumptions of what it is like to experience impairment. 2. Media representations reflect the prejudice that able-bodied people feel towards disabled people - this prejudice is the result of fear that disabled people represent everything that the 'normal' world most dreads - personal tragedy, loss and the unknown. 3. Disabled people are rarely consulted by journalists because they concur with the medical view that disabled people are incapable of leading a 'normal' life - negative representations therefore reflect the low status, oppression, exclusion and inequality experienced by disabled people in a society dominated by the able-bodied. |
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Postmodernism
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This sociological perspective argues that the dominant medical discourse, which has shaped the societal and media treatment of disabled people, is fragmenting in the 21st century, as disabled people politically organise themselves, find their voice and independently construct their own identities: -Consequently, the medical metanarrative is in decline and the perspective of disabled people that impairment does not mean unhealthy, deficient and dependent is increasingly heard and acted upon. -This is reflected in more positive media representations, especially in the coverage of sport. |
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Tom Shakespeare (1998, 1999)
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In 1998, this sociologist says that disability is a social construction - a problem caused by society, not by what may be different about people's bodies: -There is a stereotype of the 'norm' in society in relation to physical and mental state. -We are socialised to accept the 'norm' and see anything that is not the 'norm' as negative. -The media gaze often represents disability as a problem - those who control the media are predominantly White, middle-class and able-bodied men. -Whether someone is disabled or not is then a social product - it is the social attitudes which turn an impairment into a disability, as society discriminates against those with impairments.
In 1999, he described the use of disability as a character trait, plot device, or atmosphere as 'a lazy short-cut', to provide hooks to engage the audience's interest, through sympathy or revulsion: -He condemned these representations for not providing accurate or fair reflections of the actual experience of disabled people, and ignorance about the nature of disability. |
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Pluralism
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This sociological perspective believes that media representations of disability reflect the dominant medical view that disability is dysfunctional for both the individual and society: -Media representations realistically mirror social anxieties about impairment, for example, that individuals experience it as a problematic and abnormal state. -However, it is argued that media representations of disability also reflect society's admiration of the 'courage' shown by some disabled individuals, especially if they are young. -They therefore argue that media representations of disability portray the reality of the everyday conditions of disabled people and their carers. |
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Louise Roper (2003)
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This sociologist suggests that telethons such as 'Children In Need', which aim to raise money for disabled people, rely too heavily on 'cute' children who are not representative of the range of disabled people in the UK: -Telethons act to keep the audiences in the position of givers and to keep disabled people in 'their place' as grateful and dependent recipients of charity. -She notes that telethons are about entertaining the public rather than helping able-bodied society to understand the everyday realities of what it is like to be disabled. -Consequently, these media representations merely confirm social prejudices about disabled people; for example, that they are dependent on the help of able-bodied people. |
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Legal Change
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This has promoted disability rights in the UK, especially in recent years: -Equality Act 2010: protects disabled people from discrimination in employment, education, access to goods, services and facilities and buying and renting land or property. -United Nations Convention on Disability Rights: The UK is a signatory of this - it aims to protect and promote the rights of disabled people. |
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Bio-medical model
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This sociological view of disability suggests that disabled people are disabled by their physical and/or mental impairments: -Therefore, disabled people need constant care from medical practitioners and their families: disabled people are dependent upon the able-bodied. |
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Disability
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This is a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on a person's ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.
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Cumberbatch & Negrine (1992)
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These sociologists identified 3 broad categories of disability stereotype in the cinema: -The criminal -The subhuman -The powerless or pathetic character |
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Colin Barnes (1992)
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This sociologist showed how the vast majority of information about disability in books, films, on television and in the press is extremely negative, consisting of 'disabling stereotypes which medicalise, patronise, criminalise and dehumanise disabled people'.
He identifies recurring stereotypical representations of disability: -Pitiable or pathetic - characters that stir emotions and encourage pity in audiences, and programmes that treat disabled people as objects of charity, as is played on by TV charity telethons such as 'Children in Need'. -An element of atmosphere or object of curiosity - disabled people are sometimes included in the storylines of films and TV dramas to enhance a certain atmosphere, such as menace, violence or mystery, or to add character to the visual impact of a production. -Sinister or evil - one of the most persistent stereotypes, portrayed in classic characters like Frankenstein or the Phantom of the Opera, or the nasty criminals in James Bond films, like Dr No with 2 artificial hands. Disability is often associated with evil and witchcraft in films and fairy stories, and with sexual menace, danger and violence. The tabloid red-top press frequently carry exaggerated stories of the alleged dangers posed to the public by the mentally ill, such as the (incorrect) 'The Sun' front-page headline in October 2013: '1,200 killed by mental patients'. -The ‘super cripple’ - the disabled person is seen as brave and courageous, living with and overcoming their disability, or assigned superhuman, almost magical, abilities. For example, blind people are portrayed as visionaries with a sixth sense or extremely sensitive hearing (or both as in the case of Marvel's Daredevil character). -Laughable or an object of ridicule - the disabled person as the fool, the 'village idiot' and so on. -Their own worst enemy - as individuals who could overcome their difficulties if only they weren't so full of self-pity or maladjusted, and started to think more positively. -A burden - the view of disabled people as helpless and having to be cared for by others. -Non-sexual - disabled people are sexually dead and therefore their lives are not worth living. The exception to this, he notes, is the stereotype of the mentally ill sex pervert, which features quite regularly in the mass-circulation red-top tabloid press and in horror and crime TV and movie thrillers. -Unable to participate in daily life - this stereotype is mainly one of omission, as disabled people are rarely shown as anything other than disabled people. They are seldom represented as a perfectly normal part of everyday life, as workers, parents, etc. |
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