People With Disabilities In The Media Summary

This article relates to the Big Picture Question as in the article it talks about how there is a dire need of change in the way that the media portrays people with disabilities. He describes how media portrays people with disabilities as saints rather than showing their human traits. Riley asserts that celebrities with disabilities are always felt bad and considered to be not human. They are considered to be different than the rest of the world, even when they are the same as us all. Riley gives many examples of celebrities with disabilities and how they are inaccurately perceived through media. They consider the disabled to be much different than those that aren’t which isn’t right. He provides his audience with evidence that some celebrities are not being perceived as normal humans, but as heroes in overcoming their disabilities. They are looked upon as different when really they’re like the other people that are walking

Fox have been pigeonholed by print and television hagiographers as lab experiments and tragic heroes” (Pg. 643). In this quote we can see how the author is trying to show us that the media doesn’t really care for who the person may be, but they are using them as an object of inspiration. They are just putting them out there for people to look at for inspiration when really it could’ve been anyone. The media completely ignores who the celebrity may be but instead focuses on putting them out there so that other can look at them as inspirations. “Mullin's 'inspiring' saga is recycled almost verbatim by well-meaning journalists for audiences who never seem to get enough of its feel-good message even if they never actually find out who Mullins is” (Pg. 642). This quote focuses on how celebrities are being shown in a biased manner. They aren’t being seen as normal people but instead are seen differently. They are just like the rest of the people, but they are treated as if they were