Representation of Stuttering in the United Sates Newspaper Media

Abstract

The understanding of how stuttering is portrayed in the newspaper media has largely been ignored but plays a role in public perception of stuttering. A text pattern analysis, cross-sectional study was conducted based upon analyses of publicly available data. The text corpus were generated from the U.S. newspaper media during 1980–2018 (downloaded from the database U.S. Major Dailies by ProQuest). The text corpuses were analyzed using the Iramuteq software using the cluster analysis and Chi square tests. The newspaper data set had 970 texts (i.e., articles in the main corpus). The cluster analysis of the main corpus resulted in six clusters, which were named as: (1) music (2) sports (3) politics and economy (4) speech (5) cinema, and (6) general. The sub-corpus which was built based on aspects related to speech (i.e., cluster 4 in main corpus analysis) had 539 texts, which had at least one segment in sub-corpus. The cluster analysis of sub corpus resulted in four clusters, which were named as: (1) education and social support (2) personal aspects (3) aspects related to speech and (4) research and development. Time series analysis of clusters indicated a change in the pattern of information presented in newspaper media during 1980–2018. The study shows that stuttering has been presented in the media while discussing various elements including sports, arts and politics and economy, and speech. The aspects related to speech found media focuses on various elements including personal aspects, providing education and support, and providing new insights into research and development

Keywords:

• Health communication
• health information
• media news media
• stuttering
• stammering

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Michael Azios

Michael Azios, Ph.D., CCC-SLP is an Assistant Professor and director of the Southeast Texas Stuttering Clinic at Lamar University. He has expertise in the areas of stuttering and counseling, and the life impact of stuttering, specifically in educational institutions.

Farzan Irani

Farzan Irani, Ph.D., CCC-SLP is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Disorders at Texas State University. He has published and presented on treatment effectiveness in stuttering, telepractice, and psychosocial and multicultural aspects of stuttering and other communication disorders.

Brittany Rutland

Brittany Rutland, M.C.D.,CCC-SLP is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Communicative Disorders at the University of Louisiana Lafayette. She has nine years of experience working with children and adults who stutter and has presented on the topic of stuttering at the local, national, and international level.

Pierre Ratinaud

Pierre Ratinaud, Ph.D. Senior Lecturer in Sciences of Education at LERASS Laboratory, University of Toulouse Jean Jaurès, Toulouse, France. Dr. Ratinaud’s research focuses on the analysis of the dynamics of systems of social representations. He is also the main developer of the open source software Iramuteq, for statistical analysis of textual data.

Vinaya Manchaiah

Dr. Vinaya Manchaiah, AuD, MBA, PhD, is Jo Mayo Endowed Professor at the Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences at Lamar University, Beaumont, Texas. His research mainly focuses on improving the accessibility, affordability, and outcomes of hearing and balance disorders, by promoting self-management and using digital technologies.