TY - BOOK
T1 - Media integration of persons with disabilities
T2 - media effects on recipients’ attitudes and behaviors
AU - von Sikorski, Christian
PY - 2014
Y1 - 2014
N2 - The mass-media presentation of persons with a visible physical disability (PWD) shows numerous quantitative and qualitative particularities. Mass media generally only rarely take into consideration the subject of disability or PWD; sometimes PWDs even experience a total exclusion from the public discourse. When reporting on PWDs, many times the coverage is dominated by the protagonist’s physical disability regardless whether this disability is relevant for the presentation and comprehension of the topic. PWDs, as well as athletes with disabilities (AWD) are often depicted in a stereotype way with negative connotations as well as specific (negative) news cues and unfavorable news frames. Mass media this way amplify the problems of PWDs/AWDs regarding their public perception by people with and without disabilities rather than contributing to a positive change. All in all, the current state of research regarding the impact of media communication in the field of presenting PWDs can be described as ambiguous and largely unexplored. To this day, there are no specific experimental studies that have examined cause and effect relationships between impacts of media presentations of PWDs and attitudes and subsequent behavior patterns of the recipients in a systematic way. The aim of the present dissertation is to close this research gap. In view of the insufficient knowledge regarding the effects of certain media depictions of PWDs on nondisabled individuals’ information processing, Chapter two of the present dissertation analyzes how specific communication contexts affect recipients’ attitudinal evaluations of a depicted PWD. Potential context effects were analyzed with the help of two experiments (between-subjects designs). In Study 1, nondisabled participants (N = 97) were randomly assigned to four groups. The context was manipulated by subliminally (30 ms) exposing participants to different textual primes disability, sports, politics, no prime (control group). Participants subsequently evaluated a visually depicted PWD (arm amputation). In Study 2, nondisabled participants (N = 63) were randomly assigned to three groups and read an illustrated print article (the same picture as in study 1 was used). The context was manipulated with the help of specific news cues (disability, sports, politics), while the rest of the article remained unchanged. Both studies – in a systematic way – i.a. revealed that a participant’s subliminal, as well as supraliminal exposure to a disability context resulted in a significantly more negative person perception of a PWD (more negative attitudes). Previous research showed that nondisabled perceivers may automatically activate negative stereotypes about stigmatized others. Chapter three is thus based on a multilevel research design and analyses explicit attitudes and implicit associations (IAT) toward athletes with and without disabilities. On the first level (n = 143), relevant adjectives towards “disability” and “sports” were determined. On the next level, the impact and social relevance of the determined adjectives was measured (n = 102). On a third level, 85 subjects rated the pictures of athletes with and without disabilities on bipolar adjective scales. This material was used to set up an implicit association test (IAT) with 41 participants. Results, i.a., showed that implicit associations affect processes in social cognition and have different effects on perceivers’ evaluations of athletes with and without disabilities. Chapter four explores the effects of (valenced) news frames in disability sports communications. In an experimental study (between-subjects design), 90 participants were randomly assigned to three groups. Participants read a sports news article about the situation in disability sports prior to the 2012 Paralympic Games with a frame that either saliently focused on the athletic performance in disability sports (Group one), or the fate and (financial) dependency on public support of disability sports (Group two), or both (mixed frame; Group three). Participants’ importance considerations regarding specific aspects in disability sports, as well as their attitudes toward a portrayed AWD were measured. Results show that the news frame that focused on sport-specific aspects resulted in more positive attitudinal evaluations of the AWD compared to a frame that highlighted disability-specific aspects. Different content analytical studies revealed that AWDs are frequently depicted with the help of stereotypical and altogether unfavorable visual news frames. Thus, Chapter five explores what effects a specific visual news framing in a print article about disability sports has on recipients’ attitudes toward a depicted AWD. In an experiment with a 3 (framed conditions) × 2 (participants’ contact with PWDs) between-subjects design, 88 participants were randomly assigned to one of the three (framed) conditions. The participants read a sports news article with a photograph of a one-armed javelin thrower with no spectators, a few spectators, or a large crowd shown in the background. Results show that positively valenced visual news cues integrated into a visual news frame (spectators in the background of a news image) systematically affected nondisabled recipients’ attitudes toward an AWD in a positive way. The purpose of Chapter six is twofold. Firstly, we try to extend the findings on the effects of specific news frames in sports communications and analyze how specific sports news frames affect a recipient’s quality perception of a journalistic product. Secondly, we examine if news frames further affect an individual’s post-exposure behavior in social interaction with a PWD. To shed some light on these potential news framing effects, two experimental studies (between-subjects designs) were conducted. In Study 1, 69 participants were randomly assigned to three groups and were exposed to a news article dealing with the situation in disability sports prior to the 2012 Paralympic Games. Participants’ attitudes toward a portrayed AWD were measured and participants’ perceived quality of the presented news article was analyzed. In Study 2, participants were randomly exposed to differently framed news articles and subsequently interacted with a PWD priorly introduced in the news article. During the face-to-face interaction, participants’ eye-movements and their verbal communication performance was recorded. The results, i.a., show that a news article consisting of a sports frame (compared to a disability frame) affected a participant’s quality perception of a news article in a positive way. Furthermore, the results show that specificly framed news (highlighting the disability of a respective person in a positive, respectively negative way) systematically affected participants verbal communication performance in social interaction with a PWD and further affected participants’ visual attention/eye-movements (avoidance behavior). The results of the dissertation are discussed in light of the depiction of PWDs/AWDs in the mass media.
AB - The mass-media presentation of persons with a visible physical disability (PWD) shows numerous quantitative and qualitative particularities. Mass media generally only rarely take into consideration the subject of disability or PWD; sometimes PWDs even experience a total exclusion from the public discourse. When reporting on PWDs, many times the coverage is dominated by the protagonist’s physical disability regardless whether this disability is relevant for the presentation and comprehension of the topic. PWDs, as well as athletes with disabilities (AWD) are often depicted in a stereotype way with negative connotations as well as specific (negative) news cues and unfavorable news frames. Mass media this way amplify the problems of PWDs/AWDs regarding their public perception by people with and without disabilities rather than contributing to a positive change. All in all, the current state of research regarding the impact of media communication in the field of presenting PWDs can be described as ambiguous and largely unexplored. To this day, there are no specific experimental studies that have examined cause and effect relationships between impacts of media presentations of PWDs and attitudes and subsequent behavior patterns of the recipients in a systematic way. The aim of the present dissertation is to close this research gap. In view of the insufficient knowledge regarding the effects of certain media depictions of PWDs on nondisabled individuals’ information processing, Chapter two of the present dissertation analyzes how specific communication contexts affect recipients’ attitudinal evaluations of a depicted PWD. Potential context effects were analyzed with the help of two experiments (between-subjects designs). In Study 1, nondisabled participants (N = 97) were randomly assigned to four groups. The context was manipulated by subliminally (30 ms) exposing participants to different textual primes disability, sports, politics, no prime (control group). Participants subsequently evaluated a visually depicted PWD (arm amputation). In Study 2, nondisabled participants (N = 63) were randomly assigned to three groups and read an illustrated print article (the same picture as in study 1 was used). The context was manipulated with the help of specific news cues (disability, sports, politics), while the rest of the article remained unchanged. Both studies – in a systematic way – i.a. revealed that a participant’s subliminal, as well as supraliminal exposure to a disability context resulted in a significantly more negative person perception of a PWD (more negative attitudes). Previous research showed that nondisabled perceivers may automatically activate negative stereotypes about stigmatized others. Chapter three is thus based on a multilevel research design and analyses explicit attitudes and implicit associations (IAT) toward athletes with and without disabilities. On the first level (n = 143), relevant adjectives towards “disability” and “sports” were determined. On the next level, the impact and social relevance of the determined adjectives was measured (n = 102). On a third level, 85 subjects rated the pictures of athletes with and without disabilities on bipolar adjective scales. This material was used to set up an implicit association test (IAT) with 41 participants. Results, i.a., showed that implicit associations affect processes in social cognition and have different effects on perceivers’ evaluations of athletes with and without disabilities. Chapter four explores the effects of (valenced) news frames in disability sports communications. In an experimental study (between-subjects design), 90 participants were randomly assigned to three groups. Participants read a sports news article about the situation in disability sports prior to the 2012 Paralympic Games with a frame that either saliently focused on the athletic performance in disability sports (Group one), or the fate and (financial) dependency on public support of disability sports (Group two), or both (mixed frame; Group three). Participants’ importance considerations regarding specific aspects in disability sports, as well as their attitudes toward a portrayed AWD were measured. Results show that the news frame that focused on sport-specific aspects resulted in more positive attitudinal evaluations of the AWD compared to a frame that highlighted disability-specific aspects. Different content analytical studies revealed that AWDs are frequently depicted with the help of stereotypical and altogether unfavorable visual news frames. Thus, Chapter five explores what effects a specific visual news framing in a print article about disability sports has on recipients’ attitudes toward a depicted AWD. In an experiment with a 3 (framed conditions) × 2 (participants’ contact with PWDs) between-subjects design, 88 participants were randomly assigned to one of the three (framed) conditions. The participants read a sports news article with a photograph of a one-armed javelin thrower with no spectators, a few spectators, or a large crowd shown in the background. Results show that positively valenced visual news cues integrated into a visual news frame (spectators in the background of a news image) systematically affected nondisabled recipients’ attitudes toward an AWD in a positive way. The purpose of Chapter six is twofold. Firstly, we try to extend the findings on the effects of specific news frames in sports communications and analyze how specific sports news frames affect a recipient’s quality perception of a journalistic product. Secondly, we examine if news frames further affect an individual’s post-exposure behavior in social interaction with a PWD. To shed some light on these potential news framing effects, two experimental studies (between-subjects designs) were conducted. In Study 1, 69 participants were randomly assigned to three groups and were exposed to a news article dealing with the situation in disability sports prior to the 2012 Paralympic Games. Participants’ attitudes toward a portrayed AWD were measured and participants’ perceived quality of the presented news article was analyzed. In Study 2, participants were randomly exposed to differently framed news articles and subsequently interacted with a PWD priorly introduced in the news article. During the face-to-face interaction, participants’ eye-movements and their verbal communication performance was recorded. The results, i.a., show that a news article consisting of a sports frame (compared to a disability frame) affected a participant’s quality perception of a news article in a positive way. Furthermore, the results show that specificly framed news (highlighting the disability of a respective person in a positive, respectively negative way) systematically affected participants verbal communication performance in social interaction with a PWD and further affected participants’ visual attention/eye-movements (avoidance behavior). The results of the dissertation are discussed in light of the depiction of PWDs/AWDs in the mass media.
M3 - Dissertations
BT - Media integration of persons with disabilities
PB - Deutsche Sporthochschule Köln
CY - Köln
ER -