The representation of neurodivergent individuals in Radio Television Hong Kong’s television series A Wall-less World

Abstract

As the territory’s sole public service broadcaster and a government department, Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) bears a dual responsibility for disseminating information to the public and in assisting in constructing how the public understands emerging issues and marginalized social groups. This paper analyzes how neurodivergent individuals are (re)presented in A Wall-less World, RTHK’s decade-long television series dedicated to promoting social inclusiveness. We find that by using different filming genres, plots, and narratives, the series exposes and negotiates different understandings about disability and perspectives about the lived experience of neurodivergent individuals. Given RTHK’s unique position in the industry, and more generally in Hong Kong, we argue that the series perform a social service function to inform their viewers by engaging and shaping the public discourse gradually towards the neurodiversity paradigm. We also suggest future directions for practitioners and researchers to continue to engage and advocate for the neurodivergent community.

Keywords:

• Neurodiversity
• disability studies
• media representation
  
• public discourse
• qualitative research
• public service broadcaster
  
• special education needs
  

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 We acknowledge the importance of the choice of terminology within the neurodiversity paradigm. We choose to use the traditional terms “ASD”, “ADHD”, and “SPLD” only for the ease of communication, while recognizing that these medicalized and potentially stigmatizing terms may not be preferred by someone from the neurodivergent community, whereas other members may not totally reject them for other legitimate reasons. There is also not a universal consensus on the most appropriate terminology to use across different cultures (e.g. Singer et al., 2023). To our best knowledge, such discussion has yet to be found in Hong Kong. We also use “disabled” and “with disability” interchangeably for the same reason.

2 Details of the development of RTHK, including the debates about turning it into a BBC-like PSB model, can be referred to in Aitken and Ingham (2015), Wong (2017), and Wong (2023).

3 This television series is freely available for viewing on the official website of RTHK (see Radio Television Hong Kong 2010).

4 Episodes of season 7 are not theme-based; an individual with ASD was mentioned and discussed across episodes.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gary Yu Hin Lam

Gary Yu Hin Lam is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Educational Psychology at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. His work focuses on engaging the autism and neurodivergent communities to better understand and promote their well-being across the life span. His research interests include: post-school transition, mental health, critical disability studies, and qualitative methodology. He is a registered Educational Psychologist in Hong Kong and a Nationally Certified School Psychologist and Licensed Psychologist in the United States.

Hei Ting Wong

Hei Ting Wong is a PhD Candidate in the Cultural Studies in Asia program at the National University of Singapore. Her research interests include: identity construction and sociopolitical culture in Hong Kong and Singapore; media and sound technology development; meanings of voice in mediated contexts; Sinophone popular culture; and music-related educational issues.