Representation of People with Disabilities in the Online Media during the COVID – 19 Pandemic
Representation of People with Disabilities in the Online Media during the COVID – 19 Pandemic

Summary/Abstract: In the context of the pandemic, in which the online environment became the main channel used in the process of communication, the information sent by the online media about the experiences of people in general and of disabled people in particular gained greater importance. In this regard, the purpose of the paper was to, to analyse the representations of disabled people in the online media during the pandemic, in order to raise awareness about the challenges these people had to overcome. The objectives of the research included indenting the types of news reported online about people with disabilities and identifying similarities and differences between Romanian and foreign media channels. The methods used in order to conduct the research was content analysis, while having as an instrument a content analysis grid. The results of the research revealed that both Romanian and foreign media channels focused on describing news about employment, discrimination and maltreatment of the disabled and about public policies. The tendency of the channels was to adopt a negative perspective when reporting news about the disabled, but information with positive valences was found in the case of news which described the disabled as heroes- thus presenting their achievements. Furthermore, compared to Romanian media, in the foreign media more news about people with disabilities was found. Therefore, the paper draws attention to the topics online media chose to focus on in terms of disability and to the problems encountered by the disabled.

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