4º Congresso GIFE
sobre Investimento
Social Privado
24 a 27 de maio de 2006
Curitiba (PR)
COMMUNICATION AND
DISABILITIES
WORLD CONGRESS ON COMMUNICATION FOR DEVELOPMENT ROME, 25-27 OCTOBER, 2006Media and Disabilities – Introduction
The Brazilian News Agency for
Children’s Rights (ANDI) embraces a
human rights approach which
considers that the universal
realization of children’s rights is at the
cornerstone of human development
and social equity. It understands,
furthermore, that news media play a
Media and Disabilities – Introduction
Why News Media?
Why Disabilities?
Media and Disabilities – Introduction
News Media’s Roles
. Agenda-setter of the relevant issues to be discussed in the public sphere;
. Watchdog of government officials and the policies they implement;
. Source of trustworthy and contextualized information to society.
Media and Disabilities – Introduction
Can we talk about good journalism,
when an issue that is related to, at
least, 10% of the world’s population is
being forgotten or covered in a wrong
way? Can we?
Media and Disabilities – Introduction
Media System’s Actors
. Media Corporations . Journalists
. Journalism schools
. Sources of information
. Media Accountability Systems . Regulatory bodies
What have we done so far?
- Content Analysis research: 53 Brazilian
Newspapers
- Daily monitoring: 200 Latin-American newspapers - Media and Disabilities Book (Portuguese and
Spanish): a working tool to foster day-to-day coverage
- Workshops with journalists and sources of
What are we going to do next?
- Evaluation of the strategies undertaken so
far
- Reception Analysis with Brazilian and
What can be done?
- New initiatives related do journalism
under-graduation courses;
- Permanent capacity building strategies (on
line courses, for instance);
- Awards/Prizes to stimulate a better
coverage;
- Empowering people to establish a critical
Agenda-setting
Proper communication is needed to raise awareness on disability, which is too often
perceived as merely a health issue,
approached with pity, stigma and basically unknown to the public at large.
Agenda-setting
- Disabilities are placed, as an issue on itself, on the public sphere of debates?
- Is this issue reaching opinion makers?
Agenda-setting
- Disabilities are placed, as an issue, on the public sphere of debates?
- Is this issue reaching opinion makers?
- Is this issue reaching policy makers? Agenda-setting
Country
(% stories about disabilities considering the total number of stories related to
children’s issues. 2005) Thematic ranking position Argentina 0,39% 19 Bolívia 0,71% 17 Brasil 0,94% 17 Costa Rica 0,72% 14 Equador 0,95% 13 Guatemala 0,76% 14 Paraguai 0,39% 18 Nicarágua 1,34% 13 Venezuela 0,78% 14 América Latina 0,78% 16
Watchdog role
- Are public policies for the people with
disabilities being accurately covered by the press?
- Are the different levels of government in the spotlight?
Watchdog role
- Less than 5% of the stories analyzed can be identified as an result of an “investigative
journalism” effort; on the other hand, events
(congresses, seminars) and press releases very often the main sources of the disabilities coverage; - Around 60% of the texts researched had only one
source of information and less than 5% presented divergent opinions;
Contextualized Information
. Is today’s coverage allowing people to better
understand their rights and, therefore, empowering citizens to fight for them?
. Is this coverage allowing people to understand other people’s rights and, therefore, helping to
create an scenario of respecting and validating the differences among us?
Contextualized Information
. 14.1% of the coverage consider people with disabilities as human rights holders;
. 29.7% present causes (mainly biological/health ones), 43.9% discuss solutions (centrally medical ones); 23.1% focus on consequences;
Contextualized Information
.There is no discussion about gender issues and just 0.4% focus ethnic approaches;
. 84.7% of the stories scrutinized don’t include any kind of data or statistics;
. 80.9% of the material analyzed don’t mention any sort of legislation or legal framework.
Contextualized Information
. 29% of the material are identified as stories with “low level of context”
. 54.6% as stories “middle level of context” . 6.1% as stories “high level of context”
SOME RECOMMENDATIONS
DO NOT FOCUS ON DISABILITY unless it is crucial to a
story.
DO NOT PORTRAY SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES AS SUPERHUMAN OR HEROES.
DO NOT SENSATIONALIZE A DISABILITY by saying: afflicted with,
crippled with, suffers from, victim of, and so on.
DO NOT USE GENERIC LABELS
PUT PEOPLE FIRST, not their disability. EMPHASIZE ABILITIES, not limitations.
MANY THANKS!
www.andi.org.br andi@andi.org.br
