Media Strategy Report: Changing Attitudes Towards Disability

This report presents a comprehensive media strategy aimed at changing attitudes towards disability, particularly within the TV and audio-visual industries. The strategy addresses the issues of ridiculing and over-sympathizing with disabled people in media, advocating for a balanced approach. It involves multiple components, including community engagement through street plays and public interactions, news media outreach with press releases and short videos, political engagement by meeting with public representatives, and legal action against discriminatory content. The report outlines both immediate goals, such as increasing awareness through various mediums, and a grand strategy focused on social awareness advertisements. The integrated strategy map highlights the tactics and components for a multifaceted approach, emphasizing the need for cooperation and understanding rather than sympathy for individuals with disabilities. The overall objective is to foster positive changes in media portrayals and perceptions of disability.

Running head: SUSTAINABILITY
SUSTAINABILITY
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note:

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The focus of the strategy is to reduce the apathy and pity towards the disabled people
especially in the media and the audio visual industry. The TV and audio visual industry in
many ways promote the ridiculing or over sympathizing with the disabled people (Ellis and
Kent 2018). Both the extremes are unwarranted. Ridiculing the people with disabilities is
highly condemnable and this is an obvious fact, however there are many case where the
disability of a person is used and trivialised in order to increase viewership in the TV industry
(Ellis and Goggin 2015). This is done by commercialising the disabilities through over
sympathetic narratives.
The development of the strategy to counter these problems include promoting the fact
that the people with cert6ain disabilities are not at all different from us, they just need to go
through certain processes that will help them in getting oriented to the mainstream social
system, the people with disabilities need cooperation from their fellow citizens, they do not
need sympathy. There will be short videos that will be shot about the topic which will be later
used in the digital medium as well as the TV channels for advertisement campaigns. Apart
from the awareness campaigns there needs to be legal actions against any media channel or
entity that carry contents ridiculing the disabled or making a mockery of them or trivialising
disability for commercial needs. The approach needs to be comprehensive which will include
political, social, legal, and other aspects and use all the mediums keeping the country in
consideration (Ellis et al. 2018).
The strategy will have the overall objective of “Changing attitudes towards disability
in the media”. This overall objective has to be achieved by systematic actions and designing
smaller strategies. The Immediate Goal is to use the different mediums to increase awareness.
The Grand strategy is giving social awareness advertisements in different mediums. The
components of the strategy includes the community, the tactics of increasing awareness
among the community will be done by street plays, door to door campaigning and

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engagement with the people in the shopping malls and public places. Another component is
the news media, press release will be given out to the media along with short videos on the
subject. The Political tactic would be to meet the public representatives and present to them
the whole idea about the campaign. Legally actions will be taken by approaching the court if
any such content in the media is found that is discriminatory.

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Integrated Strategy Map
© A Ricketts 2012
Overall Objective
Changing attitudes towards disability in the media
Immediate Goal
Using the different mediums to increase awareness
Social/
Community Media Political Legal
Component Strategies
Tactics
Street plays
door to door campaigning
engagement with the
people in the shopping
malls and public places
Tactics
press release
short videos
Tactics
meeting the public
representatives
presenting to them the
whole idea about the
campaign
Tactics
Approaching the court if
any discriminatory
content is found in the
media
Grand strategy
Giving social awareness advertisements in different mediums

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Reference:
Ellis, K. and Goggin, G., 2015. Disability and the Media. Palgrave Macmillan.
Ellis, K. and Kent, M. eds., 2018. Disability and the Media: Critical Concepts in Media and
Cultural Studies. Culture. Routledge.
Ellis, K., Kent, M., Hollier, S., Burns, S. and Goggin, G., 2018. Reimagining Australia via
disability and media: Representation, access and digital integration. Coolabah, (24&25),
pp.94-111.