FORD (MR) MEDIA (AS)

Create a profile for a disable character (Film or TV). Explain what the disability is? Is it portrayed accurately? How is the character represented? Is it fair or realistic? Apply as many elements of theory (see posts below) that you can manage.

Tropic Thunder : Film Clip - Nobody Goes Full Retard - watch more funny videos

The media continue to enforce disability stereotypes portraying disabled individuals in a negative un-empowering way. In his 1991 study, Paul Hunt identified 10 stereotypes that the media use to portray disabled people: The disabled person as pitiable or pathetic An object of curiosity or violence Sinister or evil The super cripple As atmosphere Laughable His/her own worst enemy As a burden As Non-sexual Being unable to participate in daily life Shakespeare (1999) presents a potential reason behind the use of one of these stereotypes: "The use of disability as character trait, plot device, or as atmosphere is a lazy short-cut. These representations are not accurate or fair reflections of the actual experience of disabled people. Such stereotypes reinforce negative attitudes towards disabled people, and ignorance about the nature of disability" In other words, the disability itself is often used as a hook by writers and film-makers to draw audiences into ...

Dominant notions of disability: the individual model The societal view of disability generally conforms to the individual or overcoming or medical model of disability. This holds that disability is inherent in the individual, whose responsibility it is to ‘overcome’ her or his ‘tragic’ disability. Often this ‘overcoming’ is achieved through medical intervention, such as attempts at ‘cures’. For example, top wheelchair athlete Tanni Grey-Thompson was forced as a child to wear heavy leg callipers which gave her blisters, rather than being offered the simple and practical option of using a wheelchair. This approach to disability aims for the normalisation of disabled people, often through the medicalisation of their condition. The social model of disability This distinguishes between impairment (the physical or mental 'problem') and disability (the way society views it as being a negative). It holds that impairments are not inherently disabling, but that disability is cause...