Abstract:
The media is best suited to set the agenda for the public thus they choose what is considered
important 10 include in their daily reporting. Research has shown that the major obstacles of
persons with disabilities include biases, prejudice, and discriminations. This study sought 10
examine how the Daily Graphic and Public Agenda framed issues concerning persons with
disabilities, the prominence given to issues concerning persons with disabilities and the type
of sources mostly cited in stories concerning persons with disabilities
The study content analyzed 72 issues of the Daily Graphic selected through simple random
sampling and census approach and 46 issues of Public Agenda. The period covered January
to June 2010. h was established that there were little coverage on persons with di disabilities in
both the Daily Graphic and Public Agenda. Thus. 1.06 percent of the stories in the two
sampled newspapers covered disability issues while 98.94 percent of the stories covered non disability
issues. Despite the little coverage given to disability issues. the tone f or most of the
disability stories was positive (82.2 percent from Daily Graphic and 77.8 percent from
Public Agenda). Besides the inadequate media coverage on disability issues. both.
newspapers do not give prominence to such stories.
The study concludes that even though news coverage by Daily Graphic and Public Agenda
newspapers arc largely not stereotyped, there are still some media reports which create
negative connotation about persons with disability.
