A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of - Etheses - Queen Margaret ...

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on Direct Payments or Individual Budgets on television and in the media... but,
again, they filmed someone who uses an Individual Budget… and, you know, she
was very nice and she was saying it makes my life much better… I bought a scooter
with the money so I can get out and about blah blah blah… but then the debate and
discussion was between… what‟s he called… the minister for care… I can‟t
remember… and they had the shadow minister… for care… or whatever… but,
again, there wasn‟t a disabled person there in the discussion… and it was „care‟ this
and „care‟ that… care care care care care… (l.2:93ff.)
Charles‟ frustration at the media‟s inability to discuss disability in terms other than as a care
issue expresses a view widely held within the disabled people‟s movement:
The concept of care seems to many disabled people a tool through which others are
able to dominate and manage our lives (Wood, 1989:unpaged)
So long as the subject is publicly couched in terms of care the horizons framing popular
perceptions of disability are left undisturbed. As Pierre Bourdieu remarks, TV news „suits
everybody because it confirms what they already know and, above all, leaves their mental
structures intact‟ (Bourdieu, 1998:45).
Charity begins on TV
Helen noted the fact that when comment on news stories about disabled people is looked for
it is usually charity professionals who are approached:
...if there‟s a comment to be made on any of these type of things in the paper…
people will go to a disability charity to get a comment on it and … I don‟t know
whether it‟s the people in the media that don‟t seem to realise this … erm …but
obviously somebody working for a charity doesn‟t necessarily have that disability
but … once they‟re in the media they are representative of that disability (l.2:542ff.)
Disabled people‟s organisations are rarely invited to comment on disability issues in the
media. It is presumed that the large charities will speak on their behalf. While there are
issues here relating to the opportunism of charities in pursuit of publicity, I would also argue
that the media benefits from its promotion of these organisations. Each is necessary to the
other as each feeds off the other.
Within what Guy Debord has termed the Society of the Spectacle (Debord, 1990), the media
has an active role in creating what passes for reality. For example, the media and the big
charities work hand-in-hand to ensure maximum public participation in money-generating