This report on media monitoring outlines one half of the 2013 activities undertaken by the Convention Coalition in 2013.
Article 8 of the Convention encourages “… all organs of the media to portray persons with disabilities in a manner consistent with the purpose of the present Convention”. This is reflected in the Independent Monitoring Mechanism of the Convention: Strategic Planning Outcomes 2013-2016 - Priority Four, monitoring the portrayal of disabled people in the media.
In monitoring the media portrayal of disabled people in Aotearoa New Zealand, the project team undertook the following subprojects:
- Subproject one: media content analysis
- Subproject two: consultation with media representatives – via conversations with representatives from a range of media perspectives
- Subproject three: consultation with disabled New Zealanders – via three consultation meetings and both a paper-based an online survey.
The content analysis covered the major daily newspapers, television and radio, for the whole of 2012. This included both disability-specific programming, such as One-in-Five, broadcast on Sunday evenings on Radio New Zealand National, and Attitude TV, broadcast on Television One on Sunday mornings, as well as monitoring incidental news items and current affairs programmes for disability-related content during 2012. Two major news stories relating to disability issues were also examined: the Mojo Mathers parliamentary funding issue and the 2012 Paralympics. Media monitoring tools developed by Disability Rights Promotion International (DRPI), York University, Toronto, Canada, were utilized to facilitate this phase of the project.
In addition, New Zealand on Air practices and reports were examined, along with relevant Broadcasting Standards Authority information.
A series of twelve interviews with various media representatives, were held in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin.
A paper-based and online survey was developed and consultation meetings with disabled people were held in Auckland and Dunedin, to gain insight into how disabled New Zealanders perceive their own portrayal by the media.
As a general principle every effort was made to ensure full participation by, and representation of, a cross-section of disabled people, throughout the various stages of the projects.