Browsing by Author "Koskinen, Pekka"

In this study I focused on how disability is represented and defined in media discourses. Central was the idea that the media has an important role and power to shape our understandings of the world, of ourselves and of others. Media also shapes our understandings of disability. The theoretical background of the study is based on the social model of disability, which locates disability and its problems not on the individual but on to the structures and attitudes of society. In this model disability is understood as a social phenomenon. The same conceptualization is also the starting point of the UN convention of the rights of persons with disabilities. My research questions were how disability is represented in the media and how the medical discourse appears and is challenged by the societal discourse. The data of the study consisted of 23 articles on disability. Articles were collected between January and April of 2016 from four widely read newspapers and from the Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE’s website. Articles consisted of personal interviews, opinion pieces and news stories. The data was analysed through critical discourse analysis. Based on the results of the study it seems that disability is still defined through medical terms in the media. In this discourse disability is compared to the alleged ”normal” and defined as ”the other”. Individualistic definitions were also present in the so-called heroic discourse, which represents disability as something to be overcome. The heroic discourse idealizes the kind of person who is capable of taking responsibility of one’s own life and success. The disability rights discourse in which societal inequalities are recognised and social change is demanded was represented as a counter discourse.