ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to introduce the edited collection by highlighting key themes, theoretical frameworks and methodological approaches pertaining to the intersection between Disability and Media Studies. The development of new media and the increased engagement with self-representational practices have potentially multiplied the ways disability can be mediated, creating the basis for new research questions. The introduction historically situates the book chapters in relation to existing works exploring the question of how bodies are made to be and feel as ‘other’ in contemporary media. We argue that the fast-changing global media landscape can provide an ideal site for observing how the relationship between disability and media could create new representational and narrative modes for telling stories about and reframing human diversity. Thus, we explore how the contemporary media inform ways to conceptualize the self and human relations. Finally, it is argued that research on those topics needs to broaden its frameworks in order to move beyond a mere focus on the representational.
