Disability, identity and media : paralympians in advertising
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Date
2012
Authors
Leavitt, Stacey
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Lethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Dept. of Kinesiology, c2012
Abstract
This thesis explores representations of Paralympians within media and
advertising. Scholarly research on disability is extremely limited, with current research
focusing on print media, and few studies going as far as to perform a discourse analysis.
Media representations play a prevalent role in constructing “disability” and have the
power to define what it means to be a disabled person. Using a poststructural theoretical
framework, I undertake a critical discourse analysis of television advertisements
produced by Nike and Visa to uncover what narratives regarding disability are circulating
with regularity. I find these advertisements featuring Paralympians serve to reproduce
the myth of the “supercrip”, failing to acknowledge the complexity of individual
experiences of those living with disabilities. Further, the simultaneous celebration and
marginalization of Paralympians, a key dialectic found within these advertisements is
indicative of a larger polemics circulating with regularity regarding people with
disabilities within our increasingly neoliberal society.
Description
v, 117 leaves ; 29 cm
Keywords
Paralympic Games , Athletes with disabilities -- Social conditions , Sports for people with disabilities -- Social aspects , Athletes in mass media , Mass media and sports -- Social aspects , Dissertations, Academic