ABSTRACT
This manifesto aims for a deeper engagement with media in disability studies, and draws heavily on the theories, traditions and key concerns of media studies. Media, communication and culture have been foundational to the development of both a social model of disability and critical disability studies; however, an in-depth understanding of the theories, traditions and debates within media studies are conspicuously absent from the broader critical disability scholarship. Seven media-based keywords were searched for media, communication/s, internet, online, film, television and culture. The media, as a form of popular culture, is susceptible to this as critiques of the media and popular culture seek to establish an insider and outsider status of acceptable and unacceptable culture. Within media studies, this approach can be located in a particular tradition of media research and can be broadly summarised as the 'hypodermic needle' model of media effects.
