Representing disability: A research focusing on the representation of athletes with a disability in the Dutch public broadcasting system over the last six years.

Studies about the representation of athletes with a disability started to emerge in the 1990s when Barnes (1992) wrote one of the first studies on disability and stereotypes (Garris & Johannsen, 2020). However, it has only been since the past two decades that a major change has evolved within the representation of athletes with a disability (Howe, 2008). According to previous research these representations are often stereotypical or based on prejudice (Howe, 2008; Burch, 2020; Ellis et al., 2019; Goethals, 2018). Media have a significant role in the representation of athletes with a disability. Moreover, media play a part in the reflection of public attitudes, and perceptions on disability and in shaping these (Goethals, 2018). Based on this importance, this thesis addresses how athletes with a disability are represented in the Dutch public broadcaster NOS. In total a number of 50 articles were analyzed to answer this question using a qualitative research method, namely critical discourse analysis. Apart from analyzing the texts within the news articles, a focus was also given to the visuals included in the news articles. From the selected sample, 30 articles also included visual analysis. Based on the findings it can be noted that athletes with a disability are often represented in a stereotypical way, using the supercrip stereotype or as object of pity. This analysis provides evidence for four existing patterns “athletes with a disability as inspiration, how ableism is represented, athletes with a disability as strictly positive athletes with a disability as more than athletes.