Limited Media Representation Research Paper

In Nancy Mairs’ article for The New York Times, “Disability”, published in 1987, she expresses her distaste with the media's representation of handicapped people. Mairs, who struggled with multiple sclerosis herself, clearly and sharply conveys this disgust by stating, “I’m not, for instance, Ms. MS, a walking, talking embodiment of a chronic incurable degenerative disease.” (Mairs 13), and that she is actually, “the advertisers’ dream: Ms. Great American Consumer. And yet the advertisers, who determine nowadays who will get represented publicly and who will not, deny the existence of me and my kind absolutely”(Mairs 14). Mairs is greatly upset that disabled people are defined by their disabilities and, therefore, are underrepresented in public media. This might lead to one asking themselves, but why are they? And the answer, according to Mairs, is quite simple, “To depict disabled people in the ordinary activities of daily life is to admit that there is something ordinary about disability itself, that it may enter anybody’s life”(Mairs 14). Mairs concludes by pointing out how this effacement could have dangerous consequences for both disabled people and, as she called everyone else, TAPs (Temporarily Abled Persons) alike. Treating disabilities as an abnormal characteristic (as opposed to viewing them “as a normal characteristic, one that complicates but does not ruin human existence” (Mairs 15)) can cause one of these repercussions, as it makes the

One of the largest ways the media influences public opinions is through the news. News outlets report on local and world events, often applying their own bias to advance an agenda (Cavender, 2004). In general, entertainment television depicts crime, especially violent crime, far more often than it actually occurs in the real world (O’Keefe, 1987). Crime is more often than not presented to the public in two ways: crime is violent and criminals are nonwhite (Gilliam, et al, 1996). When put together, these two factors have

Author of disability Nancy Mairs who’s a feminist and a cripple, has accomplished a lot in writing and teaching. Her remarkable personality shows in many of her essays especially in Disability which was first published in 1987 in the New York Times. In this essay, Nancy Mairs shows how disabled people are constantly excluded, especially from the media. By giving out facts and including her personal experiences, Mairs aims for making some changes regarding the relationship between the media and people with disabilities. Mairs thesis is shown implicitly in the first

Mac Donald (2008) looks at the idea that cops over arrest blacks and ignore the crimes that whites commit. However, the races of criminals that are reported by the victims do in fact match arrest data. According to a research study as far back as 1978, “a study of robbery and aggravated assault in eight cities found parity between the race of assailants in victim identifications and in arrests--a finding replicated many times since, across a range of crimes” (Mac Donald, 2008, p. 15). It does not make sense to think why crime victims would be biased in the reports they give to the police.

The media, in particular broadcasting news, has catered to stereotypes of non-whites by over-representing minorities as the assailants in violent crime. These types of practices are clearly detrimental to the advancement of those who have been handicapped by the ignorance of the past. In the first part of the paper we examine the effects of the rise of local news, charting specific studies

This article begins by reviewing the literature highlighting the ways crime news typically reinforces stereotypes of blacks and other nonwhites, particularly Latinos, and contributes to more generalized racial biases. Media stereotypes consist of recurring messages that associate persons of color with traits, behaviors, and values generally considered undesirable, inferior, or dangerous. In terms of speaking about crime coverage, there is considerable evidence that media portray blacks and Latinos as criminal and violent. These images matter because they are a central component in the on going cycle by which the media adds racial and ethnic misunderstanding and negative associations are reproduced, and end up in predictable influences in the criminal-justice process.

Stereotype of African Americans as Criminals ​Social construction of reality can either build up or destroy the common stereotype by Americans of African American as criminals. It is important to understand the social images of crime in societies to understand the actual image of the crime. Especially, the American police departments need to find solutions for stereotype problem and educate children when they are growing up to produce a better educated generation considering racial stereotyping in the future (Johnson & Godsil, 2013). Most Americans have poor images of African Americans because of the few African American criminals. In fact, there are higher numbers of crimes that have been committed by African Americas, but that doesn’t mean

The media and society has a tendency to shy away from or almost ignore the crime of Whites and instead shift to highlight the crime of Blacks and minorities. Entman (1992) discovered during a six-month period in Chicago, news reports about Black perpetrators in violent offenses, like homicide, occurred 84% of the time while 71% of White reported crimes were violent. Another study of a local news media reporting crime found not only that “African Americans were twice as likely as Whites to be depicted as perpetrators, 6 times more likely to be portrayed as perpetrators than as law enforcement officers, and overrepresented as criminals,” but that they also represent “close to 37% of the perpetrators depicted” while only totaling one fifth of all arrestees. (T.L. Dixon & Linz, 2000; Mancini, Mears, Stewart, Beaver, and

In the media today, people with disabilities are perceived as tragic heroes or as medical miracles. They are rarely seen for their intelligence or for their accomplishments excluding their overcoming disability hardships. The textbook, Everything’s an Argument, contains an excerpt from Charles A. Riley II 's book “Disability and the Media: Prescriptions for Change.” Riley, a journalism professor at New York’s Baruch College, uses appeal to ethos, logos, and pathos to persuade his audience that their methods of portraying disabled people are in dire need of change.

News agencies can develop racializing narratives by priorities stories which show urban decay and violence in collaboration with the police which specify the race of the offender when they are a minority (Windle 2008). Crime can be causally linked by police and media to ethnicity which result in institutional responses targeting minority groups and generates crime data of ethnic crime (Poyting, Noble, Tabar 2001). This can be considered a ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’ as minority groups are overrepresented in the media leading to moral panics around the perceived high level of crime committed by minority groups which result in over policing of ethnic groups in an attempt at being seen to ‘do something’ about a constructed crime problem and ‘problem group’ (Windle 2008). This is further

Representations of disability are vitally important to the public’s view on disability. Stigmas and stereotypes facing disability are often perpetuated through film, and in popular culture. (Boyd 1322). In the genre of horror films, there is a broad range of representations of disability, from blatantly negative like in films such as Nightmare on Elm Street, and with more positive views in films in the sub-genre of zombie films. While zombies are not literally disabled, they are an insightful metaphorical representation of disability.

Discourses surrounding those with a disability have undeniably evolved within the past century, [also leading to] an evolution in the portrayal of disabled people in the media. Whereas once, people with a physical or intellectual people were depicted in film as …. , modern media has now sought to portray this minority group in a more positive light, as strong and independent figures as opposed to “freaks” and a burden on society. This essay seeks to address how the media is not only influenced by discourses surrounding this minority group but also the influence it has in how we perceive those with a disability in our society, drawing on specific examples in film and television. [Evidence from numerous studies involving a variety of different media indicated that disability is indeed a common topic and a topic that needs to be addressed in our society.

The evidence is that in ancient societies, disabled people were discriminated because they contributed less to the community and were considered as evil and lack of spirits. Many ancient works depict disabled people as the “punishment from God” for their physical impairment (7). Also, Norden points out that the Bible describes disability with prejudicial attitudes, as Jesus provides healing for men with disabilities instead of accepting them to be equal individuals. These portrayals in literature remain in the cultural context and are applied to the depiction of disabled characters in movies. The warrant of Norden’s discussion is that political and historical factors can shape the mainstream society’s assumptions of disabled people and form the stereotype that disabled people are isolated from the majority. These assumptions may increase future discrimination and isolation and conveys a sense of self-loathing among the audience with disabilities themselves. The warrant for this article is that political and

Ableism allows citizens labelled as “normal” to view society through a lens of self-dependence and limited government support. With the establishment of post-network television, viewers have been able to get a glimpse of the world lived by the “other” who do not hold this able mindset. In “Disability, Prejudice, and Reality TV: Challenging Disablism through Media Representations”, Floris Müller, Marlies Klijn, and Liesbet Van Zoonen suggest that reality television depicts the “disable other” by “sending out the message that in contemporary society, no special arrangements need to be made for people with physical impairments and that the struggle for equal rights is no longer necessary” (4). Reality shows depict a narrative that only supports

When people with disabilities are included in the making of media content, they are able to “debate the societal issues related to them that rarely make the mainstream press” (Haller, 2010, p.117). This means that they can bring up problems that they have personally experienced and help educate society on how those problems can be resolved. News about disabilities should be included in the media more often in order to help able-bodied people become aware of disabilities and avoid the stereotypes that have been created. If a person with a disability helps make a story about someone with a disability, they can make sure the story explains the necessary issue and disregards any stigmas. Beth Haller describes in her book Representing Disabilities in an Ableist World: Essays on Mass Media that “historically, articles about people with disabilities rarely made it into the news, and, when the articles were written, that they were misrepresentative and stigmatizing” (2010, p. 119). In addition, an individual with disability can