The Voices of Persons with Sensory Impairment Versus Their Portrayal by Mass Media in Zimbabwe

Abstract

The media continues to play a major role in creating global villages through information sharing, but its portrayal of disability continues to garner criticism from disability studies experts and people with disabilities (PWDs). Informal conversations with persons with sensory impairment have described the prevailing relationships between media reporting language and systems in Zimbabwe as fractured. Informal discussions with them created opportunities to have their voices heard on the subject while at the same time creating awareness and learning platform opportunities. A dearth of knowledge on the phenomenon also prompted this study. Five purposively selected participants with sensory impairments provided data through narratives, observations, and in-depth open-ended interviews. Guided by critical analysis theory, the collected data were qualitatively analysed for their content. The findings are presented according to emerging patterns, themes and subthemes, and discussions augmented by the relevant literature, which is further supported by the triangulated data to propose meaningful ways of mending the fractured relationships between PWDs and the media. Patterns generated from the studied cases demonstrate that media coverage is biased on reporting crimes and anomalies committed by PWDs compared with their progress or achievements. This is said to have created a portrait of PWDs as evil or as criminals and people from whom nothing good would come. The participants claim that such reports cause them to be hopeless beings whose good deeds and achievements are never recognised in society, so they resort to fulfilling the prophecy made about them.