Media and Disability

There are more than 6oo million disabled people across the world and this has made disability an important issue in human communities. Negative attitude towards disability is a historical phenomenon which has improved along the time. The UN and its affiliates along with the disabled NGOs have launched a campaign since 1980 to fight thisnegative outlook. Nowadays, media, as an undeniable phenomenon in people’s daily life, have been the most obvious presentation of people’ behavior towards the issue of disability. Study shows that the negative prototypes have been the main element in presentation of disability in media. The image of the disabled in media is usually associated with negative connotations such as misery, wickedness, mystery, supernaturalness,amusement, laugh, self-destruction, being parasite to society, being victims of violence, etc. The pioneering media have attempted to change this outlook toward the disabled and depict them as common citizens. In many communities, prescriptions for presenting the disable have been provided. Gathering a better knowledge about negative prototypes and attempts to hehpaherara overcome disability leads to more activepresence of the disabled in the society.