ABSTRACT

Bringing together scholars from around the world to research the intersection between media and disability, this edited collection aims to offer an interdisciplinary exploration and critique of print, broadcast and online representations of physical and mental impairments.

Drawing on a wide range of case studies addressing how people can be ‘othered’ in contemporary media, the chapters focus on analyses of hateful discourses about disability on Reddit, news coverage of disability and education, media access of individuals with disabilities, the logic of memes and brain tumour on Twitter, celebrity and Down Syndrome on Instagram, disability in TV drama, the metaphor of disability for the nation; as well as an autoethnography of treatment of breast cancer. Providing a much-needed global perspective, Disability, Media, and Representations examines the relationship between self-representation and representations in either reinforcing or debunking myths around disability, and ways in which academic discourse can be differently articulated to study the relationship between media and disability.

This book will be of interest to students and researchers of disability studies and media studies as well as activists and readers engaged in debates on diversity, inclusivity and the media.

chapter 1|18 pages

Introduction

chapter 2|16 pages

‘The Stuff of Nightmares’

Representations of Disability on the Online Bulletin Board Reddit

chapter 3|16 pages

Madeline Stuart as Disability Advocate and Brand

Exploring the Affective Economies of Social Media

chapter 4|24 pages

Losing Someone Like Us

Memetic Logics and Coping with Brain Tumours on Social Media

chapter 7|21 pages

Disabled Heroines

Representations of Female Disability in Japanese Television Dramas