Work

Media labelingversusthe US disability community identity: a study of shifting cultural language

Year: 2005
Type: article
Abstract: This study examines disability terminology to explore how the news media frame cultural representations of the disability community. More specifically, the paper examines the impact of the Americans with Disabilities Act on journalist's language choices about disability topics. A content analysis of news stories using disability terms in The Washington Post and The New York Times during the past decade was conducted. The paper illustrates that disability community identity continues to be formed, transformed and maintained through news media presentations of disability terminology. The paper argues that the US Disability Rights Movement had some success during the 1990s in putting forth language that advances its aims, though the study also suggests that some journalists continue to use terms that perpetuate limiting, narrow stereotypes about people with disabilities.
Authors: Beth Haller, Bruce Dorries, Jessica Rahn
Language: English
Subfield: Safety Research
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2071906007
FWCI: 9.009
Cites: 32
Cited by: 122
Related to: 10