Media, Paralympics & Disability Representation

 In recent years, we have seen gradual growth of media coverage of the Paralympics and other disabled sports. But, that has sadly not always been the case. Due to the lack of awareness that many have about the Paralympics, it creates almost this barricade of it being shown more so in the media. Many people don't understand the scenario at hand ultimately resulting in these sporting events not exactly being prioritized, hence leading to the minimal media exposure. But, touched in an article by Erin Pearson and Laura Misener "the highest estimated global viewership to date, at 4.25 billion total viewers, Parsons was convinced that media representation of the Paralympic Games would help “change attitudes, breakdown barriers of inequality and create more opportunities for persons with disabilities”" (Pearson & Misener, 2021). Pearson and Misener also touched on how at the 2016 Rio Games, it happened to fall into four categories pertaining to athlete first, stereotyped, informative and multidimensional.

With the four categories that are explored in the article "Paralympians still don't get the kind of media attention they deserve as elite athletes" by Erin Pearson and Laura Misener, we first take a deep dive into athletes first. For starters, we find out that many Paralympians were represented as athletes first. In this kind of coverage, many media sites referred to Paralympic sporting events as high-performance sport competitions. Here they would highlight the dedication and the training that the athletes would put into the sport while focusing on their results and accomplishments - which in this case is extremely good since it is very similar to other sports that we see normally covered. Secondly we take a look at overcoming disability which ties into being stereotyped. In this case, we tend to see many stereotypes, typically pertaining to the "supercrip narrative." With this, it frames disability as an individual problem that someone must "overcome" in order to become successful. You see where the problem starts? Most of the time because of this, we tend to see the media often using the word "participate" rather than "compete" when describing Paralympians. We would also see the term "cyborg" being thrown around for those "whose success was owed to their adaptive technologies, such as running blades, rather than their athletic abilities" (Pearson & Misener, 2021).


Lastly, let's take a look at the informative and multidimensional factors. With the informative side, it mainly focused on educating those being the viewers and teaching them about the Paralympic movement, disability sports and even articles written by Paralympians. Then we have the multidimensional factor, which would address their roles of outside being an athlete. We would get an inside look at their life at home, being parents, spouses, and more which would be used to connect the audiences in a way that we never exactly saw in Paralympic coverage before. Ultimately, I feel these both have a positive impact on the media coverage, the reason being is because it helps create a fan base for disability sports while still giving Paralympians and others a platform where they can share their perspectives and control their representation. I believe all of these factors are very important to take into consideration when talking about increasing media coverage of the Paralympics and other disabled sports. I think in order to address those being referred to as "supercrips," these stories that allow us to have an inside view of their at home life and more really can help build that connection between the viewer and the athlete hence removing these kinds of stereotypes. Other than that, I believe taking in the informative, multidimensional factors, athlete first, and how to handle stereotypes all can help increase media coverage and gain a greater audience which ultimately can benefit everyone. It can help inform those who are not very familiar with the subject at hand while also making the athletes more happy and proud creating a happy median.




 





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