Wanted: a pro-active media

The media needs to snap out of its charity-oriented portrayal of people with disabilities

While the media has a very important role to play in bringing issues and concerns relating to the disability sector to the public domain, it has not played a very pro-active role in this regard so far. In fact, the media is yet to take a rights-based approach towards highlighting the issues of persons with disability, and though their visibility has largely increased in the mainstream media in the nineties, it is still stuck in a charity-oriented or in its other extreme, an achievement-orientation, what is often called the ‘super-crip’ approach.
In terms of empirical evidences, not much is available about the media coverage of the disability sector. Very few studies have been done in this regard. One of them was done as far back as in 1999 in Madhya Pradesh by a non-government organisation, Arushi, which went through the newspapers circulated in the state for three years (1997 to 1999). Content-wise, it was found that though media covers the issues, the space given to them is not much. Even in terms of covering the issues, service and rehabilitation components take precedence over rights and other crucial issues. In their recommendations, they point out that while media may be reacting to some developments in the disability sector, more needs to be done for the media “to act as an agent of change for increasing the awareness level of the readers by formulating issues for discussion and debate, by collecting various opinions for influencing the governmental policies and practices, and undertaking its own investigations to bring issues into general discussion”. The role of the media need not be a passive receiver of news but of a proactive agent and play its own role in the overall developmental scenario.
Of the number of news items that the study looked at, none of them fell in the category of an editorial. There were only five reports that were printed in the author’s name and gave their own opinion. These reports were about the “Persons With Disabilities (Equal Opportunities Act), 1995”. Most of the reports on disability were concerning events that had taken place. None of the reports was put into developmental perspective, nor were any investigative pieces generated to follow up the events to see whether the promises are being fulfilled or not. There are some aspects of disability that have not been covered in the media at all mainly because the larger society is not sensitive to these aspects and hence they do not get highlighted at all. Some of these are natural disasters and their impact on persons with disabilities, poverty and disability, health, nutrition and disability, major causes of disability in the state, institutional and community based rehabilitation of the disabled, disability and the rights of the child, disability and human rights, gender in disability and attitude towards persons with disabilities.
Another study done by the Asian Media Information Centre based in Chennai in 2000 says that in an over-populated society where life is cheap, the loss of a limb or one of the senses is hardly something that is viewed with seriousness. Very often the tendency is to hide one’s disability. There is an element of guilt or shame in such situations. Moreover, an average person experiences a distinct awkwardness and discomfort to confront the disabled person. S/he does not know how to deal with the situation. They are afraid that they just might say or do the wrong thing. So the normal tendency is to adopt the ostrich like stance. It is not surprising, therefore, that in a country like India, there is not enough advocacy for such issues. Given the general apathy on such issues and the overwhelming obsession with entertainment-related programmes, the extremely low coverage of disability-related issues in the media is perhaps understandable.
The survey, which was carried out among newspapers in the Southern region, revealed that there is one thing which goes in favour of the disabled in terms of media coverage – the reporting and portrayal is positive. This is especially done in reporting news and events related to the disabled, both in television and newspapers. There is absolutely no evidence of sensationalism. If at all there is anything negative that creeps in, it is just in entertainment programmes. Therefore, the real challenge before those who are working for the disabled is not to try to tell the media to give positive coverage but to try and get adequate coverage in the first place. It also interviewed those who are working with the disabled and they suggest that media does not deliberately or consciously shun news and events related to the disabled. Coverage of such news or events is dependent on whether a dignitary is present or not.
To get the media to consider disability related issues as newsworthy is a major task ahead of us. Individuals and institutions working in isolation will not get us anywhere. It would require a dedicated body to put in sustained efforts over an extended period. As a commercial proposition, this will have no takers. The only way to appeal to the media is to be socially conscious and make continuous efforts to cover such issues. Some of their recommendations are: the first step would be to make media aware of the extent of the current coverage. Seminars and workshops can be organised for journalists to create awareness about disability related issues and train them to seek identified issues which need to be investigated and reported upon. Media organisations should be encouraged to consider creating a special cell or to employ people to report exclusively on social issues. While it will not be viable for them to have a cell exclusively on disability related issues, socially aware and concerned people can be employed to cover various social issues. Examples of outstanding coverage of disability related issues can be widely publicised and awards can be set up in this regard. The curriculum in the schools of journalism can include specialisation on reporting various social issues including disability. While increased awareness will automatically lead to greater awareness in the public, it would perhaps help to organise programmes in which the public can effectively participate. Actively involving high school and college students in the social service programmes related to disability will go a long way in this regard. A body should be formed which should interact with corporate bodies and government officials to ensure that all public places are fully equipped with facilities for disabled such as ramps, special toilets, pedestrian crossings, audio indicators, etc.
What the study seems to suggest is the need for media advocacy which is directly related to coverage. The more we advocate about the issues, the more coverage we can get in the media. During the International Year of Volunteers, the media group Samatvam initiated a series of studies and interfaces on the disability sector as part of which some journalists were interviewed in Delhi. Two things that came up during the study were – disability should be regarded as “hard story” and not “soft story”. Secondly there is information gap in this sector that needs to be crucially addressed. Information seems to be nobody’s baby. While non-government organisations and government people would like to have more coverage in the sector, there is no one available at a time when the media wants to write a story on disability issues. The story need not necessarily be on policies and programmes; it can be a story on an issue framed after the reporter understands and appreciates the various issues involved.
When one talks of media, one confines it to national media, i.e. a few English newspapers and a few television channels. The term media is very broad, plural and diverse and bringing all the stakeholders concerned as part of disability information and communication network is an idea whose time has come. Beginning a dialogue between the disability and the communication sector, a three-day workshop on ‘Media and Disability’ was organised by the Rehabilitation Council of India in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Mass Communication from 6 to 8 March 2004. This workshop has emphasised the need for a more collaborative approach between media and the disability sector. While the onus is on disability professionals to educate and sensitise the media towards the various issues and concerns pertaining to the disability sector, they should also start an issue-based dialogue with the media. The disability sector is a house divided and unless they put up a united front, media coverage of disability issues will not improve. Moreover, media is not just a tool for publicity but can help in community-based rehabilitation in a big way. And so, communication strategy is very critical to the forward growth of the development sector. Unfortunately, this is still very much in its infancy. If a research-oriented approach is taken, there can be an improved interface between media and the disability sector.

K Kannan is principal correspondent of The Hindu with more than 14 years of experience in covering social issues, cinema and the art and is a founder member of a media volunteer group Samatvam. Bhupesh Joshi is the director of Communicators India, a public relations firm working on social and developmental issues.

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