Hold Your Traditional Discourses! A Study Exploring Newspaper and Web News Reporting of New York’s Inaugural Disability Pride Parade

Abstract

In 2015, New York held its inaugural disability pride parade to celebrate the 25th year anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. To date, no study has explored the media models of disability as promoted in newspaper and web news reporting of this event. Applying critical discourse analysis to a sample of 31 news texts covering the parade obtained through a CrossSearch database query and supplementary internet search, this exploratory study reveals themes that call for improvements in areas of (1) social inclusion, (2) solidarity in the disability community and (3) treatment of people with disabilities. Also revealed by this research are progressive discourses which reflect cultural pluralism, civil rights, consumer and legal media models of disability. As the solidarity theme exists outside of prevailing progressive discourses, opportunities therefore exist for journalists to ethically report on disability in ways which reinforce and extend upon non-traditional discourses.