Ghanaian Newspaper Portrayal of Persons with Disabilities: A Content Analysis of Daily Graphic and Public Agenda

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.