Media Analysis Report 2013: Stories Have Consequences
Misinterpreted! Media's Take on Disability Issues: Undermining or Promoting Rights?
Prepared by: Disability Rights Promotion International (DRPI)
2013
Copyright 2013 Disability Rights Promotion International (DRPI)
All rights reserved. Published 2013.
Printed in Canada.
Published by Disability Rights Promotion International (DRPI)
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Abstract
The paper responds to a monitoring requirement of United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) by developing and testing (within Canada) a model to analyze how mainstream news media cover disability issues from a human rights perspective. While a significant literature exists examining the media portrayal of people with disabilities, very little has been done from a human rights perspective. The methodological toolbox
developed was designed to be implemented by a disability community, administered by a research committee and research manager within a jurisdiction defined by the community in order to advocate for disability rights with the media and policy decision-makers using evidence-based research. The model employs a three-stage process of analyzing text: an initial computer text-analytic portion to determine an effective sample, a human content analytic stage to determine the portrayal of people with disabilities and the coverage of 19 CRPD rights concerning people with disabilities, and a final critical discourse analysis of the key texts involving disabilities rights. The model was tested over a one-year period in Canada examining nine major newspapers. The test results indicated a notable difference in how the media portrayed disability. Four major perspectives were identified: the bio-medical perspective, the heroic or overcoming perspective, the charity or ‘feel good’ perspective and the rights perspective. This study provides a benchmark from which we are able to begin to monitor any change in the media representation of people and issues related to disability to see if it is changing.
Acknowledgements
This innovative research would not have been possible without the help of many people who were engaged in the design and development of the model. The first stage of the Disability Rights Media Monitoring Strategy involved an International Opportunities Fund grant from SSHRC, which enabled experts from around the world to come together. A research committee was struck composed of a diverse group of individuals from a number of fields of study: Dr. Joe Woefel (United States), Dr. Ezra Zubrow (United States), Brenda Battleson (United States), Hao Chen (United States), Cameron Crawford (Canada), Dr. Vinod Pavarala (India), Emil Erdtman (Sweden), Carolyn Evans (Australia), and Vishaya Naidoo (Canada), Mihaela Dinca-Panaitescu, the Project Coordinator for Disability Rights Promotion International – Canada, Dr. Marcia Rioux, a professor at York University’s School of Health Policy & Management in Toronto and Co-Director of Disability Rights Promotion International; and Dr. Andrew Laing, President of Cormex Research, a Canadian media content measurement and analysis firm. This group of innovative thinkers developed the initial broad design of the project. Subsequently a Canadian advisory committee was added specifically for the pilot study in Canada including Stephen Trumper, an instructor at Ryerson University and a wheelchair user; Raymond Cohen, President of the Canadian Abilities Foundation; Dr. Beth Haller, a professor at Towson University in Maryland and a leading academic studying disability issues in the media; Sheyfali Sanjani; a broadcaster and producer with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation radio and an active member of the Toronto disability community. The study was funded as a part of the DRPI-Canada research funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council through its CURA program.
We want to thank Rita Samson for her important contributions to the Canadian project and Paula Hearn and Jessica Vorstermans, Critical Disability Studies graduate students at York University for their work on the critical disability analysis section. Dr. Andrew Laing was the Principle Researcher for the Canadian study. Mihaela Dinca-Panaitescu was the overall coordinator of the project.