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 Disabled People At Least Im Not Gay, 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 extent 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 Disabled People At Least Im Not Gay 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.
On the other hand: I can learn to accept my autism, to embrace it instead of cursing it. Based on the assumption of mainly heterosexual identifying audiences, we presume that the presentation of a homosexual exemplar in a news article evokes more stigmatizing responses towards people with a disability than the depiction of a heterosexual exemplar:. Don't miss it! She landed on the front lawn, bleeding and in pain. Yet, many effects emerged as moderation effects, indicating that the investigated factors can interact in complex ways that are not necessarily easy to anticipate or intuitively comprehensible. Homosexual individuals still experience high levels of stigmatization e.
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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. 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. 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.From this book I learned about the disease and about someone who persisted towards a seemingly impossible goal. He lives in Los Angeles. Figure 2. Parks-Stamm, E. Participants were randomly assigned to one of the resulting 16 experimental conditions. He hugged Aunt Gerry, realizing that she had been right. Media and the development of gender role stereotypes. It is not unlikely that both paths of influence, the one we originally proposed and the resource-oriented alternative view just described, again occur in parallel. Likewise, male audiences can be expected to react more divergent, and also likely more stigmatizing, than female audiences after reading an article about an exemplar with a disability. In our opinion, four key implications can be derived from our study. Exemplars' impacts in marketing communication campaigns. Dieses Produkt bewerten Sag deine Meinung zu diesem Artikel. This assumption of disability type-specific exemplar effects is supported by our results. We did not observe an interaction effect between readers' gender and exemplars' gender, indicating that both phenomena of greater male-variance exist largely independently of each other and thus deserve separate consideration. Such information is frequently mentioned in news stories, albeit often only as a side note. Only completely answered questionnaires were included in the analysis. Motivated to penalize: women's strategic rejection of successful women. The presumed higher stigmatization of homosexual compared to heterosexual individuals with a disability emerged as main effect for prosocial emotional reactions. Discovering Statistics Using IBM SPSS Statistics. Register yourself now and be a part of our community! Since Weiner et al. Google Scholar. It depicted a student with a disability who just joined the participants' university, and described the initial experiences and challenges. Instead, you should teach autism acceptance. 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. I think maybe I'd wear them sometimes, to let people know in a humorous way that "This is who I am and I'm happy with it and I'd like you to accept it, with its advantages and disadvantages". My brothers were hoping for another brother, but Mom knew instinctively that the next child would be a girl. A nurse told my parents it was imperative that I be baptized immediately. Gibbons Cambridge: Cambridge University Press , 11— Aunt Gerry always thought I was named after her, but Mom had named me after Saint Gerard, the sacred saint of life, because I fought for my life coming into the world. It often creates more separation than oneness. She has made a difference with her life against all odds and it teaches us so much. Quote from Kroek. Reducing the public visibility of particularly stigmatized individuals will likely not help to reduce prejudices and stigmatization, while further problematic exemplar depictions can promote stigmatizing generalized responses towards all individuals with a disability, as our study showed. 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. Hypothesis 1 postulated a higher generalized stigmatization response after reading an article featuring an exemplar with a learning disability compared to a physical disability.
