Media representation of people with disability in advertisements - a short study

Abstract

Background and objectives: This study is about the representation of people with disabilities in advertisements. The topic is up to date and meaningful as the media’s representation of people with disabilities reflects and influences the social integration of these people at a given time and revealing and shaping stereotypes of them (Fraser, 2018).

Methods: The method was content analysis. Data was retrieved from one of the most popular TV channels’, the TV2’s advertisements in prime time for two weeks in January 2020. The study questions included the frequency, rola and type of disabilities can be seen in the advertising blocks of this period on the said channel.

Results: A total of 789 minutes 33 seconds of advertisements observed appearance of people with disabilities is 6 times, and a total of 4 minutes 48 hundreds of a second. Both advertisements featured a wheelchair user person, who was shown as a person who is in need of care and help.

Conclusions: People with disabilities ont he observed channel and broadcast period appeared to be negligible extent in the broadcast advertisements. Meanwhile, even during the small number of appearances, people with disabilities appear in sentimental rhetoric as people in need.

Keywords: representation of people with disabilities; people with disabilities in advertisements; media and disability; media representation; image of disability