THE REPRESENTATION OF LEARNING DISABILITY IN THE JOURNALISTIC LANGUAGE
Gioia Feliziani
Doctor in Communication Science
INTRODUCTION
The aim of my research is to analyse the images and cultural representations of learning disability through its characterisation by the media. This means, above all, to make “a census of absence”, since learning disabilities are seldom presented by the media, compared to other forms of disability, like physical and sensorial ones.
That is surprising mostly because learning disabilities are a widespread reality: as far as frequency, length and consequences are concerned, mental disorders are the main cause of suffering and disability in the world (C.N.C.A, 2000).
Many studies have been carried out on the cultural representation of disabled people, mostly in Great Britain[1]. They showed that the representation of disabled people in the media, as well as in other forms of art such as literature, filmography, photography, etc, witnesses the cultural and social oppression involving the subjectivity of disabled people in contemporary society.
Furthermore, this research also showed that the building process of an image of disability is often under-discussed:
“Models tend to be static and do not necessary reflect contradictory representation and change over time. They help us “fit” media stores in to boxes, but do not necessary aid in a more complex analysis of the process involved disability construction. Thus overall, the variety of elements of media analysis necessary to understand disability cannot be reduced to a simple categorization of content, but require a complex sensitivity to multiple dimensions of the process” (Meekosha H. And Dowse L., 1997b, p. 11).
In particular, the way disabled people are represented by journalists aroused problems.
The criteria for building news, plays a delaying and restraining role for mass media, that always looks for extraordinary, unconventional and deviant events or, vice-versa, for what can give safety, such as clichés.
Consequently, disability is very often represented with extreme, pietistic or spectacular stereotypes, capable of arousing strong emotions and audience participation.
As it is a complex and many-faceted subject, disability fits the pace of journalistic production badly, which is frantic and characterised by a limited word count/ airtime. This leads to a simple reading, broken into fragments, made up of a series of individual stories, “human cases” described out of an appropriate context and of a closer examination of the subject.
As far as learning disabilities are specifically concerned, the means of information often link it to crime news, to suffered or perpetrated violence, to sterilisation or, in Italy, to the strong debate about the closing of mental hospitals in the Eighties. All that, together with the still frequent confusion between learning disability and mental illness, contributed to the growth of the “social alarm” and the “embarrassment” with which this subject is dealt.
In this research, I am going to analyse the image of learning disability in a different context from the ones mass media generally use: sport.
In order to do that, I chose six newspaper articles and a TV report on Italy 2003 Special Olympics National Summer Games.
I chose the particular context of a Special Olympics event because, thanks to my work experience there[2], I deeply understand the message that this organisation wants to spread.
Special Olympics is an international organization dealing with sport training and athletic competitions in different Olympic disciplines, both for adults and children with learning disability.
In this context, sport does not mean a simple competition, but it is a means of supporting personal growth, the autonomy and the whole integration of people with mental retardation. For that reason, in parallel with each sport event, other important initiatives are carried out, in order to involve athletes, their families, volunteers and the audience, thus creating a moment of socialization and sensibilization.
By working as a media relation, I had the opportunity to directly survey the journalists’ approach to this event and, in general, to the subject of mental retardation.
In particular, I directly followed the recording filming of the TV report I am going to analyse, from the first contact with the journalists to the moment of registration, checking their intentions in terms of representation, also through interviews with the programme editors and with the involved journalists[3].
METHOD OF ANALYSIS
During my analysis, I will try to underline the stereotypes and the prejudices about learning disability according to the following typologies:
- Content stereotypes: analysis of the thematic frames where learning disability and related subjects are placed.
- Stereotypes of iconography and linguistic representation[4]
- Stereotypes dealing with the attribution of discourse authority: I will analyse who can mostly speak about disability and its related subjects.
In my analysis I firstly took into consideration of the current affairs from the period in which the 2002 Special Olympics National Summer Games event happened (which includes all the other contemporary events and news, that could have influenced the journalistic representation, in terms of way of dealing with the subject and importance given).
In order to analyse the newspaper articles and the TV report, I took into consideration both elements external to the text (context and paratext) and textual ones (visible and linguistic elements). The analysis of the latter was based on the following items, which were analysed when both separately and when they are connected.
Analysis of linguistic elements (analysis unit: for the newspapers, each single para-textual element and phrase, while for the TV report each single para-textual element and interview).
Items have been divided into three parts: one is about content (dealt subjects, meaning areas, discourse subjects, tone, discourse authority); one is a linguistic part (disability terminology, that is the terminology used to refer to people with mental retardation); and finally, the last part is about “representation”, where I underlined the most strongly learning disability-related features, by taking them from the text (role, ability, behavioural features).
Analysis of visible elements: (analysis unit: photos for the newspapers and each single shot for the TV report).
For the image analysis, items are: relationship with the text (generically or specifically), represented subjects, connotations/meaning areas, photos subjects, characterisation of the subjects (individuals, homogeneous group, heterogeneous group), type of handicap, sex, related abilities, behavioural features, analysis of subtitles and titles.
Furthermore, for the analysis of the TV report, I took into consideration meta-communicative elements (voice tone, relationship between contents and speakers’ behaviour) and, for the analysis of the interview in the studio with Alfredo Scarlata, some means of conversation analysis (turn allocation, pre-allocation, pauses and silences organisation).
ANALYSIS OF THE TV REPORT
The examined report was broadcast on June, 17th, 2002, in “Racconto Italiano” (“An Italian Story”), on Rainews24 Magazine, a RAI satellite channel entirely devoted to news, which also deals with social subjects, with special attention to Italian people living abroad, since this programme is also internationally broadcast.
“Racconto Italiano” is an informative, cultural programme. According to Besio S. and Roncarolo F. (1996), such programmes present disability in a different way from TV news, dominated by extraordinary aspects and, consequently, by pietistic tones and the search of “super-heroes”.
Since informative-cultural programmes are less interested in the logic of events and since discussed subjects are put in the foreground by editors’ sensibility, less importance is given to political news, while greater attention is devoted to the cultural dimension of disability.
Furthermore, as noted by the editorial programme of “Racconto Italiano” and by the journalists themselves in the interviews, news is strongly personalised: the story is built through its protagonists’ words and great importance is given to single, personal stories[5].
The report is made of six extracts from interviews, two of which conducted with Alessandro Palazzotti, Special Olympics Italian President, and two with Chiaristella Vernole and Zita Peratti, two national coaches. An important role was played by the story of a single athlete, Silvia, through her mother’s words, Lina Mascarello, and her trainer’s, Mariangela Poncato.
The filmed report was followed by a live interview with Alfredo Scarlata, a Special Olypmics athlete and an actor.
The analysis of the different parts of this TV report showed that learning disabilities have often been represented through simplified and stereotyped images.
As stated by the journalist Marco Bariletti during the interview, the message supposed to be sent by the report is that sport helps people with learning disabilities to integrate themselves into society: this is why great importance was given to “transformation” stories[6].
In the first interview, Alessandro Palazzotti states that people with a learning disability initially suffer from marginalisation. It is only thanks to the sport organisation’s trainer that they manage to be integrated in the realm of non-disabled people by gaining physical fitness and self-confidence, which seem to represent two criteria of normality, in this situation.
The same theme is proposed in the presentation of Silvia’s story, through her mother’s words, Lina Mascarello, and her trainer’s, Mariangela Poncato: through the exasperation of sensationalistic tones, the latter even seems to become a miracle-maker.
In this case, the mentioned “normality criteria” are communicative capacities: the athlete had difficulties in relating to the others because of the lack of these capacities.
Silvia is described by her trainer as a “non persona” (“non person”), “doveva ancora nascere” (“she still had to be born”),“un guscio” (“a shell”), “un uovo” (“an egg”). At the linguistic level, we find here the stereotype of “handicap as a barrier to a full and happy life”, which is a variant of “better dead than disabled”. These are two of the disability images in the media underlined by the American researcher J. Nelson (1994).
It is as if communication problems prevented people with learning disability from acquiring their own subjectivity.
The “loss of personality” of disabled people was stressed also at an iconographic level. Even though two clips of the report are devoted to Silvia’s story, in most cases she plays a neutral/absent role. During the interview with her mother, Silvia is not present, while she is during the interview with her trainer, but it is as if she were not there, because she does not speak.
She is thus fixed in her role as disabled person, “Does he take sugar”?[7]. In TV programmes, this strategy is often used to refer to people with cognitive delay (Besio, S. and Roncarolo F., 1996: 283-284), probably because of communicative problems[8].
This method, adopted by “Racconto Italiano”, also struggles with the message supposed to be sent through Silvia’s story, that is benefits deriving from sport activity to people with mental retardation.
The representation of these people as insecure people who need assistance was also confirmed, in the report, by all the images of athletes doing sport activity with their trainer’s support.
Furthermore, during interviews, only the name of mentally retarded people (Silvia)was give, as simply their name and surname (Alfredo Scarlata) and their sporting role was never clearly mentioned, unlike in interviews with able- bodies people (as it often happens on TV programmes, Besio S. and Roncarolo F., 1996). Thus, it is shown that there is no possible acknowledgement for these people, apart from their role as a disabled person.
It is also showed that the stereotype of the person with mental retardation as an “eternal child” is always present: these people are inevitably considered “less than others”, since they suffer from mental deficiency.
The athlete Silvia is designated by her trainer with the term “ragazzina” (literally meaning “Kid”), even though she is nineteen and these athletes are often filmed while playing and having fun.
Sometimes, the “reversed stereotype” is proposed, that is “the hyper-enhanced disabled person”, where actions and abilities become extraordinary , since they are related to the protagonist’s disability.
The TV report’s title is “Con una marcia in più”( literally meaning “Being a cut above”) and it underlines the extraordinary features of people with mental retardation, by using emotional tones. Furthermore, while describing her own story and her daughter’s, Lina Mascarello often uses the adjective “special” and so does Alessandro Palazzotti while describing, in general, people with learning disability[9].
The stereotyped image of people suffering from Down’s syndrome as incredibly affectionate and kind-hearted was presented many times during the report thanks to images; this is particularly clear in a shot starting with a handshake (symbol of love, union, fraternity) and then widening until it includes two smiling and fond-looking athletes with Down’s syndrome. The aim of this image is to raise emotional participation and tenderness.
The interview in the studio with the Special Olympics athlete Alfredo Scarlata particularly concentrates on the fact that he is an actor and played a role in the film “Ti voglio bene Eugenio”, starring with Giuliana De Sio and Giancarlo Giannini, two well-known Italian actors.
Sensational tones are used to emphasise this situation, which is special, far from being ordinary and whose result is a stereotyped representation of disability, often made by the media: the “disability champion” (Besio S. and Roncarolo F., 1996, Masotti G., 1999), with stories of people capable of doing extraordinary things despite their disability.
Furthermore, in the report we can find many “simplified” and “reassuring” images of mental retardation. The majority of the people filmed suffer from Down’s syndrome, a clearly recognizable deficit which can be easily communicated through images.
The informative aspect is thus neglected. Down’s syndrome often becomes the symbol of learning disability: it is, actually, only one of the many facets (even though the most “evident”) of a vast and diverse reality.
Fortunately, people with learning disability are also represented, even though seldom, as active people, who chose to devote themselves to sport.
In the interview with Zita Peratti, the Gymnastics National Coach, the main topic deals with benefits for disabled people deriving from sport activity. Also in this case, there are hints to the thematic of “transformation” and partial or total autonomy is what the disabled person should aim at. The difference is that the disabled person is an active person, capable of using sport as a means of improving his/herself.
In interviews, people with mental retardation are usually designated with the generic term “person”, whose handicap, condition or “being special” is seen as an associated feature and not as the person him/herself (“special person”, “person with disability”, “disabled young people”). The generalising effect of the linguistic stereotype is thus limited. Furthermore, we can notice that the term “Handicap” was never used.
When the term “athletes” is used, it is never associated with “deficiency” or “handicap”. During the interview in the studio, despite the embarrassment at the beginning and the sensational, sometimes paternalistic, tones of the interviewer, the athlete-actor presented his story, that is the story of a person leading a life of fun, work and interests, by showing autonomy of thought and firmness.
This data confirms what underlined by S. Besio and F. Roncarolo (1996) in their analysis: the interview in the studio gave a more positive image of disabled people, if compared with the filmed reports and that witnesses the benefits deriving from meeting and having a direct contact with “diversity”.
Furthermore, the journalist who made the filmed report decided not to show images which were too shocking and morbid. Many authors (Masotti G., 1999, Besio S. and Roncarolo F. 1996, Ross K., 1997, Poiton A., 1997) have underlined that some TV programmes, also dealing with medicine, often dwell upon morbid details, without a narrative aim, just in order to strike and arouse the audience’s voyerism.
NEWSPAPER ARTICLES
The analysed newspaper articles are taken from “La Nuova di Venezia” and “Il Gazzettino di Venezia”, two newspapers dealing with international, national and local news.
Although the Special Olympics event had a national importance and involved nearly 4000 people (athletes, families and volunteers), all the articles were published on the local news. This data, which could be read as a down-grading of an event dealing with learning disability, must also be analysed by taking into consideration the fact that, in those days, the Football World Cup was taking place. Since football is a very popular sport in Italy, all sport magazines devoted most of their pages to it, leaving a few to those sports considered as “less important”.
However, the local press’s capacity to influence the public is remarkable, since it put the theme of disability closer to the readership’s daily life.
Furthermore, another important data is that most articles were published on the pages devoted to general news, rather than to sport ones. The tendency to pour everything dealing with disability into general news was already remarked by V. Bussadori (1994), who concludes by stating: “come dire che nel binomio handicap/ cultura-sport-mobilità ha sempre maggior peso il primo termine”[ibidem, p.28].( my translation: “that is to say that in the pair handicap/culture-sport-mobility the former always carries more weight”).