Media Representation of Women with Disabilities Affected by COVID-19 Evidence from China

Main Article Content

Ying Xiong
Xiuli Wang

Keywords

women with disabilities, media representation, COVID-19

Abstract

Based on the content analysis of news samples from 23 Chinese media outlets, this study examines the media representation of women with disabilities affected by COVID-19. We found that women with disabilities are marginalized, stereotyped, and stigmatized under the combined influence of ableism, sexism, and the pandemic.

Abstract 301 | WORD Downloads 116 PDF Downloads 139

References

Barnes, C. (1991). Discrimination: Disabled people and the media. Contact, 70 (4),164-172.
Beauchamp-Pryor, K. (2011). Impairment, cure and identity: Where do I fit in. Disability and Society, 26(1), 5-17. http://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2011.529662
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative research in psychology, 3(2), 77-101. http://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa
Briant, E., Watson, W., & Philo, G. (2013). Reporting disability in the age of austerity: The changing face of media representation of disability and disabled people in the United Kingdom and the creation of new “folk devils”. Disability & Society, 28(6), 874-889. http://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2013.813837
Bu, W., Liu, X., Tian, S., Xiong, Y., Huang, A., & Wu, H. (2019). Media representation study on school-related gender-based violence. Journal of Chinese Women’s Studies, 1, 5-18.
Cai, C. (2016). Rights of persons with disabilities and public communication: Analysis of the top 10 Chinese incidents about the rights of persons with disabilities in 2015. Disability Rights Studies in China, 3(2), 1-26.
Cai, C. & Xiong, Y. (2021). Handbook on media reporting for promoting disability equality in China. https://zh.unesco.org/sites/default/files/mei_ti_bao_dao_cu_jin_zhong_guo_can_zhang_ping_deng_zhi_nan__0.pdf
Chang, H., & Wang, J. (2016). From “handicapped” to “disabled”: A content analysis of disability labels and discourse in Taiwanese newspapers, Taiwanese Sociology, 31, 1-41. http://doi.org/10.6676/TS.2016.31.1
China Disabled Persons’ Federation. (2021). The number of Chinese disabled persons in different types and levels of disabilities at the end of 2010. https://www.cdpf.org.cn/zwgk/zccx/cjrgk/15e9ac67d7124f3fb4a23b7e2ac739aa.htm
China Internet Network Information Center. (2020). The 45th China statistical report on internet development. http://www.cnnic.net.cn/hlwfzyj/hlwxzbg/hlwtjbg/202004/t20200428_70974.htm
Fairclough, N. (1995). Media discourse. Edward Arnold.
Feng, J. (2020). Seeing female workers: The female We-media and discourse activism in Covid-19. Shanghai Journalism Review, 10, 32-44. http://doi.org/10.16057/j.cnki.31-1171/g2.2020.10.003
Fletcher, S., Joe, M. B., Hernandez, S., Toman, I., Harrison, T. G., & Ruzycki, S. M. (2021). The gender of COVID-19 experts in newspaper articles: A descriptive cross-sectional study. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 36(4), 1011-1016. http://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-020-06579-3
Gao, Y., & Liu, H. (2016). A Content analysis of news reports on persons with hearing disabilities in People’s Daily. Disability Rights Studies in China, 3(1), 21-41.
Hole, J., & Levine, E. (1971). Rebirth of feminism. Quadrangle.
Humeira, B., & Nurbaya, S. (2017). Framing of women with disabilities on online media. Advances in Social Science. Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, 153, 116-119.
Jones, L. (2020). Women’s representation and voice in media coverage of the coronavirus crisis. https://www.kcl.ac.uk/giwl/assets/covid-media-analysis.pdf
Kassova, L. (2020). The Missing Perspectives of Women in COVID-19 News: A special report on women’s under-representation in news media. https://www.iwmf.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/2020.09.23-The-Missing-Perspectives-of-Women-in-COVID-19-News.pdf
Liu, B., Bu W., & Chen, X. (1997). Analysis on the gender stereotypes in Chinese TV ads. Journal of Chinese Women’s Studies, 2, 19-24.
Ni, Y. (1998). The politics of representation: Negative constructions of the Other in media. Mass Communication Research, 58, 85-111.
Perreault, W. D., & Leigh, L. E. (1989). Reliability of nominal data based on qualitative judgments. Journal of Marketing Research, 26(2), 135-148. http://doi.org/10.2307/3172601
Robinson, L., Schulz, J., Ragnedda, M., Pait, H., Kwon, K. H., & Khilnani, A. (2021). An unequal pandemic: Vulnerability and COVID-19. The American Behavioral Scientist (Beverly Hills), 65(12), 1603-1607. https://doi.org/10.1177/00027642211003141
Schaefer, R. T. (2011). Sociology. McGraw-Hill.
Thomas, R., Cooper, M., Urban, K. M., et al. (2021). Women in the workplace 2021. https://leanin.org/women-in-the-workplace/2021
Tuchman, G. (1978). The symbolic annihilation of women by the mass media. In: Crothers L. & Lockhart C. (Eds.), Culture and politics: A reader (pp. 150-174), Palgrave Macmillan.
United Nations. (2020). Policy brief: A disability-inclusive response to COVID-19. https://unsdg.un.org/sites/default/files/2020-05/Policy-Brief-A-Disability-Inclusive-Response-to-COVID-19.pdf
Van Dijk, T. A. (1995). Discourse semantics and ideology. Discourse & Society, 6(2), 243-289. http://doi.org/10.1177/0957926595006002006
Van Zoonen, L. (1994). Feminist Media Studies. Sage.
Watson, J., & Hill, A. (2012). Dictionary of Media and Communication Studies. Bloomsbury Academic.
Xiong, Y. (2022). The marginalized groups in the COVID-19 pandemic: A media representation study on 23 Chinese media. The Post-Doctoral Research Report of Peking University (unpublished).
Xiong, Y., Wang, X. (2021). Persons with disabilities in COVID-19 news coverage: Based on a perspective of media representation. Disability Research, 4, 44-54.
Zhang, Z. (2020). Reconstruction of the female identity by the story of Mulan under COVID-19. Dynamics of Social Sciences, 9, 40-45.
Zhou, Y., Zhang, C., & Chen Z. (2021). Analysis of media communication on social integration of disabled in the context of COVID-19 pandemic. Disability Research, 2, 81-89.