disability in TV drama task

disability is represented in a variety of different ways through media including the 4 areas of textual analysis and through the other 6 areas of representation as disability will affect all of these in some way. stereotypes of disabled people include the study by Paul Hunt in 1991 which outlined the 10 stereotypes commonly affecting the disabled, these include:
- pitiable
- objects of curiosity and violence
- sinister/evil
- super cripple
- as atmosphere
- laughable
- his/her own worst enemy
- burdens to others
- non-sexual
- unable to participate in everyday activities/tasks
throughout TV dramas disabled people are usually seen from camera angles that are taken from a low point to show their perspective and point of view but also from a tilted birds eye view to make them seem even smaller and more inferior to able bodied people. the cameras are also less likely to pan as many disabled people are in wheelchairs so unable to walk or move easily so are often shown to be still. there isn't a specific type of editing that is involved when using the idea of disabled characters although depending on the disability the shots can be fairly erratic and jumpy to show how their mentality and thought patterns are all over the place. the dialogue of many disabled characters is made to sound immature or make noises that don't generally make sense to show mental issues, music is sometimes slow and sad to show the sympathy of the audience about certain situations that disabled characters are put in. finally the mise-en-scene of these TV dramas usually includes the characters wearing plain clothing, lots of dark or boring colours to make out that they don't want to attract attention to themselves because of their disabilities. other times a setting is created to make the person seem childish as if they cannot look after themselves and need to be cared for because of their disabilities this represents them as something people should pity because they are unable to look after themselves like fully able people.
- disability in relation to gender has got definite differences through the way they are perceived, disabled men are usually seen as the 'butt' of the jokes and are made fun of or used for humor whereas woman are usually empathized with more and are made to be pitiable and a cause of sadness or upset because of the way they are portrayed. Jean from eastenders would be an example of a character that is sympathized for, she suffers from bi polar but is seen as a very fragile person who has a lot of hard times, she is rarely ever used for the effect of humor unlike many other characters in TV dramas for example Derek which has had a lot of controversial storylines. the main male character in this TV drama has some type of mental disorder but is used as a humorous effect in the programme, he is not felt sympathy for but instead laughed at by the audience.

- in relation to age disability again has lots of differences. younger disabled people are a lot of the time seen as heroic especially when it is referring to young children then are often seen to be out of the ordinary and take part in things to out way the stereotypical idea that all disabled people cant carry out everyday tasks. older people are often seen as burdens on other people, they are stereotyped to all live in care homes and be suffering from types of dementia and memory loss, this again is used to create humor. an example of how older people are viewed as disabled would be grandpa from the Simpsons as he is seen as someone who is obviously suffering from some time of memory problem, he looks wacky and mad to audiences and is used as humor.

- there are not as many stereotypes on the way disabled people are perceived through different races however its slightly more uncommon to see people of oriental or African ethnicity to be seen as disabled it is usually white people.
- again with the area of sexuality it is not normally homosexual people that are characterized as disabled its not normally specified though but without obvious signs that are stereotyped to homosexuality such as being overly camp then it is hard for the audience to distinguish what sexuality the character is so is normally seen as heterosexual.
- upper class people in TV dramas are not usually seen to have obvious disabilities however in lower class casts the characters are sometimes made out to look as though they cannot afford treatment or help for certain disabilities so it adds to the idea that they have little disposable income. an example of a lower class disabled person would be this character from little Britain, he is seen to be living on what looks like a council estate flat, you can tell from his clothing and dialect that he was obviously not brought up in a rich or upper class area. his disability is also used for humor as it is actually false but he does seem to also have some type of lower mentality than other characters by the way he speaks and acts as he constantly repeats things.

-regional identity i don't personally believe affects the stereotypes and images that are associated with disability in TV dramas, there isn't an obvious region or place that disability is seen as more common, however regional identity can sometimes link to peoples social class so the points above are the affects in this situation.