Abstract

CORTES, Mª Eugenia González; RODRIGUEZ, Inmaculada Montes  and  ROJANO, Francisco Javier Paniagua. Journalists' opinions about the treatment of disability on television. OBS* [online]. 2018, vol.12, n.1, pp.217-233. ISSN 1646-5954.

The attention paid by the Spanish mass media to audiences with disabilities remains limited, in a society where the number of people with disabilities reaches 3.8 million, representing 8.5% of the population. This study includes the opinions of seven journalists who work or have worked as directors, producers and/or anchormen of television programs focused on this specific audience. Analyzing their interviews, we provide a view of the media treatment of disabilities, the awareness of the audience and the role of the media related to social minorities. It also includes a portrayal of the Spanish television programming related to disability. The results show the existence of a greater compromise of the public media, which is committed to program spaces that encourage normalization and social integration of people with disabilities, even though it is necessary to have a more continuous and less episodic attention, and a greater journalistic specialization.

Keywords : disability; television; public mass media; social minorities; accessibility.

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