Paralympic Broadcasting and Social Change: An Integrated Mixed Method Approach to Understanding the Paralympic Audience in the UK

Abstract

Despite the successful transition of the Paralympics from relative obscurity to global mega-event, we still know little about how it is consumed by audiences. Using a methodological approach that draws on survey ( n = 2008) and focus group ( n = 216) data from Paralympic audiences across the UK, this study provides the first mixed method and integrated empirical analysis of Paralympic audiences to date. We attempt to identify who the UK Paralympic audience is, before examining audience perceptions of Paralympic coverage, and the impact of watching the Paralympics on audience sentiments toward disabled people in sporting and everyday contexts.

Inclusion in Paralympic Sports from 2010 to 2021: A Systematic Review

“…Numerous studies suggest that Paralympic sports directly or indirectly favour an improvement in attitudes towards disabilities and disabled athletes, even when simply seen on television (Bebetsos et al, 2014;Weissman et al, 2019;Richardson, Smith, & Papathomas, 2017a;Richardson, Smith, & Papathomas, 2017b;McKay et al, 2015;McKay et al, 2020;McKay et al, 2021;Reina et al, 2020;Perez-Torralba et al, 2019;Bartsch et al, 2018;Dalbudak & Yigit, 2019;Souza, Marques, & Fermino, 2020;Pullen, Jackson, & Silk, 2021;Jesina, Kudláček, & Liu, 2010;Kudláček, Evaggelinou, & Doulkeridou, 2010;Haishima et al, 2020;Stone, 2021;Ferrara, 2018).…”

Paralympic Broadcasting in Sub-Saharan Africa: Sport, Media and Communication for Social Change

“…There is now a considerable body of evidence that highlights the cultural impacts associated with the developments in Paralympic coverage on progressive disability discourses, public attitudes toward, and understandings of, disability (see, e.g., Bartsch et al, 2016; Coats & Vickerman, 2016; Pullen et al, 2021). Indeed, as perhaps the single most visible display of disability on broadcast TV, and one that attracts huge audiences, Paralympic coverage has demonstrated its pedagogical power to engage public(s) on issues related to disability that have contributed to challenging the negative associations, stereotypes and stigma toward disability (Pullen et al, 2021).…”

“…Historically, mediated narratives of disability have positioned disabled 2 people within discourses of deviancy (e.g., as villains or ‘freaks’), vulnerability (in need of support and unable to participate in everyday life), ambivalence or abjectness, and/or heroism (seen as trivialising or patronising) (see, e.g., Riley, 2005) thereby contributing to cultural stereotypes, marginalisation and exclusion from participation in the media industry and wider civil society. However, there is burgeoning evidence that Paralympic coverage – particularly free-to-air television broadcast coverage – has stimulated shifts in the media representations and narratives of disability (Hodges et al, 2015; Pullen et al, 2021) and influenced greater civic awareness around disability issues. Indeed, whilst there certainly remain critiques around Paralympic coverage concerning the pervasiveness of the ‘supercrip’ narrative as a rearticulation of discourses of heroism (see, Silva & Howe, 2012; Kolotouchkina et al, 2021), many scholars are cognisant of the progressive shifts that have occurred in relation to Paralympic and wider disability related media that engage with the social and political dimensions of disability experience and the concomitant public awareness of disability issues.…”

“…In parts of the Global North 1 , the Paralympic Games receive extensive broadcast coverage on Free-to-Air (FTA) television. A growing number of studies have pointed to the concomitant impact of Paralympic coverage on shaping more progressive public discourses around disability (Bartsch et al, 2016; Coats & Vickerman, 2016; Hodges et al, 2015; Pullen et al, 2021). For the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), whose vision centers on Paralympic sport as a vehicle for disability equality and inclusivity, evidence of the societal impacts of Paralympic broadcasting on progressive disability attitudes in some parts of the Global North (e.g., United Kingdom, Canada, Northern Europe) has been a positive force in the continued development of the Paralympic movement.…”

“…CfSC has a long history of engaging with a diverse range of scholarship – such as Freirean pedagogical theory, feminist theory, post-colonial theory, social movement theory and more (Thomas & van de Fliert, 2014) – and as such brings a rich blend of interdisciplinary cultural inquiry to debates on mediatization, particularly as it relates to communication practices in LMIC in the Global South (Obregon & Tufte, 2017). To date, and despite social justice being an important topic of inquiry in the field of sport communication – see, for instance, the special double issue of Communication & Sport journal on sport communication and social justice published in 2020 (Jackson et al, 2020) – there has been relatively limited engagement with CfCS; Perhaps not overly surprising given the Western-centric focus of Sport Communication scholarship more generally (see Jackson et al, 2020) and Paralympic media more specifically (Pullen et al, 2021).…”