People With Disabilities In The Media Analysis

In the media today, people with disabilities are no longer seen as normal human beings. They are being portrayed as a person that has overcome a huge obstacle, or a hero that has won a fight against their disability; they are never portrayed as people who have accomplished something despite their disability challenges. In an excerpt from Charles A. Riley II’s book “Disability and the Media: Prescriptions for Change,” he shows how badly the media is displaying people with disabilities and why it needs to be changed. Riley shows that celebrities with disabilities are many times seen as a “Profile in Courage,” and how they never find out who the celebrity is outside their disability (535). Riley also shares some guidelines that should be used when portraying people with disabilities in the media. Charles A. Riley is a professor of journalism at Baruch College, part of the City University of New York. Riley has also been editor in chief of WE, a magazine that focuses on disability issues. He has also received several awards for his writing on issues relating to disabilities; Riley has had many experiences when it comes to topics regarding persons with disabilities. It is mentioned that Riley is able-bodied, a fact that he believes has important consequences for his …show more content…
Riley also mentions that “in much of the same way, Christopher Reeve and Michael J. Fox have been pigeonholed by print and television hagiographers as lab experiments and tragic heroes” (537). Both of these situations appeal to logos because Riley uses real personal examples of celebrities about how they are not seen as a person despite their disability. This attestation gives the audience a clear argument to the fact that disabled people are being shown in a twisted