Media and Disability 1998 Abstracts
Media and Disability Interest Group
The Origins of Closed Captioning: The National Bureau of Standards and Television for the Deaf • Mark Borchert, Northwestern College • This historical study examines how the National Bureau of Standards (NBS), in the pursuit of its own agenda, took the first steps in creating closed-captioned television. As NBS researchers developed a technology to transmit precise standards of time, their interests, intentions and limitations shaped the nature and cultural definition of what would come to be known as “television for the deaf.” The understanding of closed captioning that emerged in this context continues to impact American policy and culture.
Personal Contact Versus Media Exposure as Predictors of Reactions to People with Disabilities • Olan Farnall and Kim Smith, Iowa State • The research presented in this paper explores the influence of personal contact and media exposure on reactions to people with physical or mental disabilities. Visibility of the estimated 43 million Americans with a disability has significantly increased since the 1990 passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which requires employers to make “reasonable accommodations” for disabled employees, mandates that new public transportation be accessible and bans discrimination on the job and in public places.
Physiographic Aggragation and Segmentation: Inclusion of Visually-Detected Physically Impaired Role Models in Advertisements • Dennis Ganahl and Jeff Kallem, Drake • This is an intensive case study of a physically handicapped person. The research develops a personal market profile of the subject to identify him as a prospect and target market for major advertisers. The researchers then develop data from the subject’s actual media consumption to see if any physically impaired models reflect this target market of one in the advertisements. The research results are disappointing and do not illustrate the inclusion of visually-detected physically impaired models in current advertising.
Prizing Disability in Journalism: Inspiration as Code • Beth Haller, Towson University • Awards for excellence in journalism have grown and expanded enormously in the past decade. Prestigious awards signal “validation” of journalistic reporting, but the subject of this paper is the larger cultural meaning that the topics of these awards winner signify. This paper qualitatively assesses specific types of award-winning journalistic endeavors • those that deal with illness or disability. The goal was to reveal the cultural meanings behind these types of journalistic stories and their potential social impact on the lives of people with chronic illness or disability.
A Feminist Exploration of Cybertheory, Student Journalists and RSI Work Culture • Catherine Marston, Iowa • This paper is an initial effort to explore and integrate feminist and cultural theories into a preliminary ethnographic study I conducted of the student journalists at the Daily Iowan. I examine feminist disability and cyber theories to consider the cyborg as a theoretical concept related to my work. I also situate this project within American journalistic work culture, which I refer to as “RSI work culture” because cultural factors are implicated as causes of RSI.
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