Within this assignment my aim is to identify and discuss current debates surrounding how a person with disabilities is represented and portrayed by the mass media.
The media has been debated from the onset and according to (Fowler, 1991) it seems to be more apparent within relation to developing socio- economic countries. (Bagdikian, 1983) suggests that media offers positivity in the battle to implement equality and cultural diversity within society. Within society world-wide there is currently estimates over 750 million people diagnosed with some form of disability. The Government, (2014) released figures estimating the disability prevalence within the UK, stating that there is over 11 million people living with a long term condition. In 2011 it was estimated that around 86% of people had access to the internet within their homes without a disability. Whereas the figures for people with disability that have access were considerably lower at 61% (GOV, 2016) As the world moves forward and we become more dependable upon the social networking and the media, it is paramount that access should be made more available to all regardless of capabilities (Sharkey, 2000).
Since the 1960’s disabled people and their advocacy’s have been campaigning to stop negative portrayal of a person’s disability and for the right to be portrayed for the person behind the disability (Hasler, 1993), (BCODP and Colin Barnes, 2001). The general public have come to just except the medias interpretation as valid and behaved and acted accordingly towards people within their communities (Shakespeare, 2002). The Media plays a huge part in our day to day life’s and often influences our opinion greatly (Hunt, 2000). Many advocates for people with disability have argued that the media have too much freedom on how they cover and portray disability’s. Herman’s interpretation of media portrayal suggests that the westernised prejudice perception of disabilities continues to strive further in stereotyping minority groups (Herman,1992 and Herman, 2000).
Throughout the world activists argue that action needs to be taken and stricter guidelines put into place to protect the individual and promote equality (Goggin and Newell, 2002). The Canadian association of broadcasting has reported on how disabled people are often depicted within in today’s media, resulting in stereotyping disabled people as objects to be pitied (Media smarts, 2016). (Ewen and Ewen, 2006) suggests stereotyping is a concept of an individual’s perception based upon their prior conceptions, reflecting their personal ignorance toward the person they are portraying. Despite all the campaigning against how the disabilities are portrayed some may argue for the right of freedom of speech and that any publicity is a positive attribute and will raise awareness about a condition or conditions (Ellis and Kent,2011). Misinterpretation within in the media surrounding disabilities has been suggested to be the main attribute that sways public’s negative perception of disabilities by the general population (Haller, 2010).
Steel (2010), speaks of how Berlin conceptualised freedom of speech whether it is portrayed positively or negatively, suggesting that too much freedom of speech will only result in discombobulation and intern demise a person’s liberty. Phillips, (2014) “speaks of the anti-democratic ideas and political extremists threaten the right to freedom of speech within today’s society”. Whereas Marx describes freedom of speech within the press like a looking glass that opens the world up into everybody’s home bringing enrichment to their life’s intellectually (Marx and Engels, 1975). Both freedom of the press and freedom of speech have become entwined over the years together. Combining both however could be argued as and infringe upon people’s liberty’s and rights giving the media too much power to dominate public thinking (Meeuwis,1993).
Recently the main focus relating to disabilities within the UK media has been dominated by welfare reform (BBC and Buchanan, 2015). The governments proposed cuts to disability benefits and services that were leaked six weeks before the election. Cutting benefits would have impacted negatively on disabled people and prevented them from living relatively functional life’s and caused an uproar. When the government plans were leaked sending it sent the media into a frenzy. Therefore, it could be argued that if the media did not have freedom of speech and freewill to publish as they desire the public may have suffered by not being informed of the governments intentions (Ross,1997). Through being forearmed and forewarned activist and the public were able to lobby and protested about the cut backs utilising the media to do so and get the message across and well into the public eye. Steel (2010) “speaks of the anti-democratic ideas and political extremists threaten the right to freedom of speech within today’s society”.