What is it about?

With a few exceptions, media visibility and representation of people with disabilities is scarce. It is biased and anchored in stigma, distorting their image and hindering their full social participation. Paralympic sport is one of the social fields where the challenge of an objective representation of disability becomes particularly important due to the ever-increasing amount of television attention to the Paralympic Games as a global sports event and some persisting stereotypes in media representation of athletes with disabilities. Through an exploratory and interpretive research method, aimed at assessing media visibility of disability from the perspective of content production and its dissemination, the paper reviews the evolution of media representation of the Paralympic Games and athletes with disabilities during Sochi 2014, Rio 2016, and PyeongChang 2018 global sports events in the daily news programs from the National Spanish Broadcaster, RTVE. The effective inclusion of people with disabilities in the public sphere and a progressive removal of stereotypes and stigma depends to a great extent on the visibility and objective representation of disability in media.

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Why is it important?

The article examines how disability and Paralympic athletes are represented in the media, specifically in news programs. Through an analysis of media coverage of the Paralympic Games from Sochi 2014 to PyeongChang 2018, it identifies best practices and highlights the evolution in the representation of athletes with disabilities. Additionally, it addresses issues related to stereotypes, nationalism, and gender in media coverage, emphasizing the need to view Paralympic athletes as athletes on equal footing. This study contributes to a greater understanding of the media visibility of Paralympic sports and its impact on public perception, which can influence policies and attitudes toward the inclusion and representation of people with disabilities in sports.

Perspectives

My perspective is to highlight how media narratives have perpetuated stereotypes and influenced public perception of people with disabilities. By analyzing the coverage of the Paralympic Games, I emphasize the need for a more equitable and positive representation that portrays Paralympic athletes as competitors on equal footing, rather than focusing solely on their disabilities. Additionally, I advocate for a change in journalistic practices to promote greater inclusion and visibility of athletes with disabilities, thereby contributing to a more tolerant and respectful culture towards diversity in sports.

María Luisa García Guardia
Universidad Complutense de Madrid

Read the Original

This page is a summary of: Disability, Sport, and Television: Media Visibility and Representation of Paralympic Games in News Programs, Sustainability, December 2020, MDPI AG,
DOI: 10.3390/su13010256.
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