Framing Disability in the Indian News Media: A Political Economy Analysis of Representation

Abstract

This article argues that the amount and nature of disability representation in English and Telugu news media directly and indirectly serves neo-liberal objectives. Disability construction in the Indian print news media may be construed as a product of the political economy of representation. News articles present disabled people as having ‘use value’ in society, ready to be offered for ‘exchange value’ in the market. These insights are derived from a close reading of news articles using framing analysis, which allowed us to explore the underlying political economy of disability coverage in mainstream news. This article situates the symbiotic economic relations established through the media’s consciously placed disability representation within the existing discourses related to disability. It also attempts to reevaluate the available themes on disability and media representation with a view to uncovering the implied meanings of political economy recurrent in print news in India.