Portraying people with disability in Indonesian online news reports: a corpus-assisted discourse study

Abstract

This article investigates representations of individuals with disabilities in Indonesian news media by drawing on corpus-assisted discourse study, social actor analysis, and news models of disability. The data comprises news articles which refer to disability published on popular Indonesian online news platforms over a ten-year period (2011–2020). The findings reveal prevalent portrayals of disabled people as passive beneficiaries and objects of representation, which implies a tendency to diminish their active involvement in society, supporting the social pathology model of disability. The progressive models, including the civil rights and consumer models, which highlight the active participation of disabled people, are limited. The article concludes by emphasising the need for a more balanced portrayal of disabled individuals by incorporating more news articles that underscore their agency. It also recommends the integration of diverse viewpoints from individuals with disabilities to attain a more comprehensive understanding of their challenges and perspectives.

Keywords:

• Corpus-assisted discourse studies
• disability studies
• social actors
• language and media
• inclusive society
• Indonesia

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Lembaga Pengelola Dana Pendidikan (The Indonesia Endowment Fund for Education); Balai Pembiayaan Pendidikan Tinggi (Center for Higher Education Funding).

Notes on contributors

Muchamad Sholakhuddin Al Fajri

Muchamad Sholakhuddin Al Fajri is a Lecturer in Linguistics at the Faculty of Vocational Studies, Universitas Airlangga, Indonesia. He is also currently a PhD candidate at the School of Humanities, Universiti Sains Malaysia. His research interests include corpus-assisted discourse studies, corpus linguistics, critical discourse studies, and English for academic purposes.

Hajar Abdul Rahim

Hajar Abdul Rahim is an Honorary Professor of Linguistics at the School of Humanities, Universiti Sains Malaysia. Her current research interests include corpus linguistics, (critical) discourse analysis, TESL, and lexical studies.

Kumaran Rajandran

Kumaran Rajandran is a Senior Lecturer in Linguistics at the School of Humanities, Universiti Sains Malaysia. He primarily teaches courses in English linguistics. His research involves the multimodal study of corporate, historical, political, religious, and media discourses. He also explores the articulation of identity, power and ideology in contemporary societies.