Super, social, medical: Person-first and identity-first representations of disabled people in Australian newspapers, 2000–2019

Potts, Amanda ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4598-6577, Bednarek, Monika and Watharow, Annmaree 2023. Super, social, medical: Person-first and identity-first representations of disabled people in Australian newspapers, 2000–2019. Discourse and Society 34 (4) , pp. 405-428. 10.1177/09579265231156504

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Abstract

This paper provides an interdisciplinary, corpus-based study of naming practices for disabled people in a collection of Australian newspaper articles spanning 20 years. We analyse head nouns, modifiers, and coordinating structures for both person-first and identity-first language, drawing on social actor analysis as well as previously-identified models of media representation. Overall, we find similar usage of both naming practices with respect to the types of social actors that occur, the categorisations of disabilities that are referenced, and the associations that are established, with only minor differences. Additionally, both naming practices are strongly associated with the medical and social pathology models of media representation, which emphasise disadvantage, with almost a total absence of ‘progressive’ models, which represent people as multifaceted agents. We conclude by emphasising the need for the news media to incorporate the voices and preferences of disabled people themselves.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	English, Communication and Philosophy
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
ISSN:	0957-9265
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	14 March 2023
Date of Acceptance:	24 January 2023
Last Modified:	15 Aug 2023 16:29
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/157635

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