Students with intellectual or physical disabilities still face public and institutional stigmatization. The current study examines how different news portrayals of college students with a disability affect readers' stigma-related attitudes and behavioral intentions. The article was manipulated regarding exemplar's type of disability, gender, socioeconomic status, and sexual orientation. All four tested exemplar characteristics and respondents' gender affected several dimensions of stigmatization, albeit often as interaction effects. Overall, findings indicate that story-unrelated characteristics of portrayed individuals affect readers' generalized stigma-relevant attitudes, emotional reactions, and behavioral intentions. Results are discussed regarding the likelihood for accidental stigmatization through journalistic exemplar choices, and regarding implications for a stigma-sensitive health communication and anti-stigma communication practice. Mass media shape audiences' views on people with disabilities and other minority groups Corrigan et al. These perceptions are likely to affect public stigmatization towards such groups, resulting in adverse health consequence such as poorer overall health, increased likelihood of problematic health behavior e. While such portrayals can vary greatly in terms of style and are typically not representative for the issue, research from framing and exemplification research suggests that they can change audiences' attitudes and reality perceptions Krämer and Peter, It is largely unknown, however, to which Disabled People At Least Im Not Gay such news portrayals of single cases affect audiences' generalized stigmatizing attitudes towards all members of the depicted group. Likewise, it is largely unclear which characteristics of the exemplars affect stigma-related outcomes, and how these exemplar characteristics interact with each other as well as with reader characteristics. The present study addresses these research gaps by examining the effects of experimentally manipulated news portrayals of college students with a disability on readers' emotional reactions, stigma-related attitudes, and behavioral intentions. According to exemplification theory Zillmann and Brosius,media exemplars e. Even though exemplars e. Besides, individuals' tendency to prefer concrete, emotional i. All in all, several theoretical frameworks and numerous studies suggest that single-case descriptions are influential for attitude formation, decision making, and behavior changes related to social issues Zillmann and Brosius, Mass media have long been criticized for stereotypical and negatively biased media presentations of people with mental health problems Ma,intellectual disabilities Wilkinson and McGill,and physical disabilities Hebl and Kleck, However, previous studies suggest that even realistic representations can have unpredictable and negative effects on recipients' attitudes Ritterfeld and Jin, ; Röhm et al. While it can be assumed that news reports can unintentionally increase or decrease stigmatization, the mechanisms are still not well understood. For example, there is a comparatively large number of studies on the influence of insinuated guilt or responsibility for a person's disability on stigmatization. These studies indicate that individuals who are perceived as responsible for their disability e. Our study is more concerned with aspects of exemplar portrayals that appear largely irrelevant to the news story, such as exemplars' demographic characteristics. Such information is frequently mentioned in news stories, albeit often only as a side note. It is largely unclear if, or how, these additional information affects how readers think or feel about the social group that the portrayed exemplars represent. It is not yet known, for example, which combination of characteristics of individuals with a disability should be emphasized in news reports in order to reduce the possible stigmatization of this group, and which characteristics, or combination of characteristics, might unintentionally further increase audiences' stigmatizing tendencies. In order to assess the variety of stigma-related reactions, stigmatizing generalized attitudes are subsequently understood as encompassing specific dimensions of affect e. Breckler, The current study therefore attempts to clarify 1 which exemplar characteristics are relevant for stigma-related attitudinal, emotional and behavioral changes related to individuals with a disability, and 2 how exemplar characteristics interact with each other and with readers' gender in shaping stigma-related audience responses. Many aspects of individuals or their stories are potentially stigma-relevant. The current study focuses on four characteristics that are typically mentioned in news reports, and examines how they—individually or in specific combination—affect generalized attitudes towards all members of the portrayed group i. Building on concepts such as priming Molden,cue convergence Cho et al. While priming processes are defined as unintentional and unaware activations of emotions, opinions, and intentions by a stimulus Molden,cue convergence extends this notion by considering possible interactive effects of multiple informational cues e. As set out in detail below, we assume that cues for the exemplar's type of disability, gender, socioeconomic status, and sexual orientation are, either alone or in combination, highly relevant in this regard. Since Weiner et al. Compared to physical disabilities, studies consistently indicate a higher stigmatization of people with mental or intellectual disabilities, due to the common invisibility Venville et al. Some scholars e. We therefore assume that reading a news portrayal featuring an individual with a learning disability in an academic context evokes more stigmatizing reactions than reading the same news report featuring an exemplar with a physical disability:. H1: Reading a news report featuring an exemplar with a learning disability produces increased stigmatizing responses towards individuals with a disability, compared to reading a news report featuring an exemplar with a physical disability. While ample research suggests that sexism and gender-based discrimination are still widespread, the scientific literature is inconclusive about the type of dominant bias e. Previous experimental research typically did not observe general stigma-related differences based on exemplars' gender, but instead for readers' gender: Compared to female readers, male readers frequently indicated generally higher levels of stigmatization after reading articles about individuals with an illness or a disability e. Consequently, we refrain from positing an exemplar-gender-specific hypothesis, and instead focus on the interaction between readers' and exemplars' gender. Accordingly, a person's gender can deem as a relevant category for social comparison processes, and may thus foster or inhibit stigmatization. Same-gender exemplar-reader constellations are particularly valuable for social comparison processes e. We therefore assume that gender-congruent reader-exemplar constellations in-group conditions generally yield less stigmatization than gender-incongruent reader-exemplar constellations out-group conditions :. H2: Compared to gender-incongruent reader-exemplar conditions, reading an article featuring an exemplar with the same gender Disabled People At Least Im Not Gay the reader evokes less generalized stigmatization towards individuals with a disability.
Disabled people do not tend to flaunt their disability in the way that some gay or autistic groups sometimes flaunt their gayness or autisticness. Participate now! The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author s and the copyright owner s are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. Bilder in dieser Rezension. I know, for instance, that there is a number of the deaf and mute, who think that all people shouldn't be able to hear nor talk, that being deaf and mute is superior.
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This candid memoir details her experiences from her traumatic birth in Buffalo, New York, to her rise to stardom as a stand-up comic to becoming a television. Since the beginning of the s, attitudes toward LGBT persons have changed in a positive direction, and homophobia in public discourse is no longer approved. The phobia may exist among heterosexuals, gay men, lesbians or bisexuals themselves and is often related to multiple negative stereotypes of bisexuals centered. The current study examines how different news portrayals of college students with a disability affect readers' stigma-related attitudes and behavioral.Exemplification effects: a meta-analysis. Born with cerebral palsy, Geri Jewell inspired a generation of young people when she became the first person with a disability to appear in a recurring role on prime-time television, with her groundbreaking character, Cousin Geri, on the NBC sitcom The Facts of Life. Individuals with a disability still experience substantial public and structural stigmatization, which can have detrimental effects on their state of health and their engagement with health services or health care providers. Female exemplars with a learning disability evoked less discomfort and insecurity than male exemplars with the same disability. How the media cover mental illnesses: a review. Somehow I had managed to get pneumonia, and I was not expected to survive the night. All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. In the process of prepping for surgery, a tiny miracle was born! Also, no direct support for hypothesis 3 emerged, as exemplars with a high socioeconomic status did not generally yield more stigmatizing responses. She was hemorrhaging, and my parents were sadly informed that Mom had lost her baby. An ethical and practical solution that is accepted by the affected individuals is needed. Yang, L. The vividness effect: elusive or illusory? Bartlett, P. Yet, our findings hint to the notion derived from Crenshaw's intersectionality hypothesis that a combination of two or more stigma-relevant exemplar characteristics can yield increased stigmatizing reactions compared to a single stigma, leading to a partial support for hypothesis 6. Ma, Z. Amazon Business Mengenrabatte, Business-Preise und mehr. Figure 7. Besides, heterosexual exemplars with a learning disability and homosexual exemplars with a physical disability yielded less positive behavioral intentions for male respondents than the just mentioned heterosexual exemplars with a physical disability. As this sensitization strategy will likely change the public perception of exemplars over time, follow-up studies are needed to examine the extent of this effect and possible unwanted results. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher. From the doctor who advised her parents to give up on their disabled baby, to a neighbor's bigotry and cruelty, to sexual abuse, about her marriage, to the comedy club owner who felt too "uncomfortable" to watch Geri's comedy act, to her groundbreaking role on Facts of Life, to her critically acclaimed role on Deadwood, to her invitation to the White House, to coming out as a lesbian, Geri lays it all out there and more. In , my parents, Jack and Olga Jewell, had been married for 12 years and had two sons, David and Fred. ORIGINAL RESEARCH article Front. Fourth, it seems essential to sensitize communicators, affected individuals, and perhaps also the public to such unwanted exemplar effects, insofar as they can be replicated by independent studies. As shown in Figure 6 , female respondents indicated comparatively similar and high levels of positive behavioral intentions towards individuals with a disability, independent of the exemplar's type of disability and sexual orientation.
