Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• GALBREATH, MICHAEL EDWARD

Titel

NEWSPAPER COVERAGE OF SPECIAL EDUCATION IN THE "WASHINGTON POST" AND "NEW YORK TIMES": 1979-83

Ort / Verlag

ProQuest Dissertations Publishing

Erscheinungsjahr

1986

Link zum Volltext

• ProQuest

Quelle

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• The study was an investigation of newspaper coverage provided to handicapped children for five years (1979-1983) in two prominent American newspapers. The study provided comparative data of the Washington Post and New York Times in the number of articles published, distribution of articles by special education categories and subject matter. Public Law 94.142's definitions of handicapping conditions were used as categories in determining the exact nature of articles. The two newspapers were also grouped into the periods 1979-1980, 1981, and 1982-1983. The year 1981 was the International Year of the Disabled, a major public relations vehicle for persons with handicapping conditions, and much of the study provides comparison of the coverage prior to and after 1981. The results indicated there was a significant increase in the numbers of articles written about special education in 1982-1983 as compared with 1979-1980. Five disability areas received 77 percent of the news coverage during the five-year period. These areas were: Mental Retardation, Multihandicap, Orthopedic Impairment, and Serious Emotional Disturbance, and a Generic category. Also five disability areas received significant increased coverage in 1982-1983 when compared with 1979-1980. These areas were: Multihandicap, Orthopedic Impairment, Specific Learning Disabilities, Speech Impairment, Visual Impairment, and a Generic category. In addition, it was learned the context in which the articles appeared or the type of information associated with the handicapped children categories during this five-year period. A major conclusion was that these two newspapers have published more information about the mentally retarded than other categories of the special education population, but relatively little on handicapped children in programs for the deaf, deaf-blind, and hard-of-hearing populations. A recommendation was that researchers and administrators of these special education programs conduct systematic observations of messages produced about persons with handicapping conditions in their local media. Once concerned persons are more aware of the messages written about handicapped children, it is the responsibility of individuals involved with handicapped children to clearly understand what messages they are receiving from the media, and transmitting to others. It is through promoting appropriate messages that concerned persons may become even more effective in producing messages that will benefit all handicapped children.