Reframing Disability?

The London 2012 Paralympic Games - the biggest, most accessible and best-attended games in the Paralympics' 64-year history - came with an explicit aim to "transform the perception of disabled people in society," and use sport to contribute to "a better world for all people with a disability." This social agenda offered the potential to re-frame disability; to symbolically challenge "ableist" ideology and to offer a reinvention of the (dis)abled body and a redefinition of the possible. This edited collection investigates what has and is happening in relation to these ambitions. The book is structured around three key questions: 1. What were the predominant mediated narratives surrounding the Paralympics, and what are the associated meanings attached to them? 2. How were the Paralympics experienced by media audiences (both disabled and non-disabled)? 3. To what extent did the 2012 Paralympics inspire social change? Each section of this book is interspersed with authentic "voices" from outside academia: broadcasters, athletes and disabled schoolchildren.

Daniel Jackson is Senior Lecturer in Media and Communication at Bournemouth University. Caroline E. M. Hodges is Senior Lecturer in the Media School at Bournemouth University. Mike Molesworth is Principal Teaching Fellow at the University of Southampton. Richard Scullion is Associate Dean of Corporate & Marketing Communication in the Media School at Bournemouth University.

Introduction Daniel Jackson, Caroline E. M. Hodges, Richard Scullion and Mike Molesworth Section I Photo Montage: Paralympic Sports Within Victoria Education Centre Kayleigh Wilcox 1. Between Exclusion and Inclusion: The Importance of the Olympic Movement for the Development of Paralympic Sports Christoph Bertling 2. Out of the Shadows, Into the Light?: The Broadcasting Legacy of the 2012 Paralympics for Channel 4 Alison Walsh 3. Dis/Enablement?: An Analysis of the Representation of Disability on British Terrestrial Television Pre- and Post- the Paralympics E. Anna Claydon, Barrie Gunter and Paul Reilly 4. #IsItOk to Be a Celebrity (Disabled) Comedian?: Approaching Disability with Adam Hills's Television Program, The Last Leg. Liz Giuffre 5. Framing the Difference(s): Analysing the Representation of the Body of the Athlete in the 2012 Olympics' and Paralympics' Official Programmes E. Anna Claydon 6. Provoking a Public Service: Paralympic Broadcasting and the Discourse of Disability on Channel 4 Lynne Hibberd 7. "Super-Humanity" and the Embodiment of Enlightenment: The Semiotics of Disability in the Official Art and Advertising of the 2012 British Paralympics Jenny Alexander Section II My Experiences of the Paralympics David Young 8. Where Agendas Collide: Online Talk and the Paralympics Mike Molesworth, Daniel Jackson and Richard Scullion 9. Representations of the Paralympic Games on Dutch Television Jacco van Sterkenburg 10. Contentious Disability Politics on the World Stage: Protest at the 2012 London Paralympics Filippo Trevisan 11. Voices from the Armchair: The Meanings Afforded to the Paralympics by UK Television Audiences Caroline E. M. Hodges, Daniel Jackson and Richard Scullion Section III The Paralympics Poem Jagdev Rathaur and Hugo Lucas-Rowe 12. From the Distant Sidelines: Stories of Engagement with the London 2012 Paralympics from Disabled People Caroline E. M. Hodges, Daniel Jackson and Richard Scullion 13. The Paralympic Games and the Agenda of Empowerment P. David Howe and Carla Filomena Silva 14. An Inside Look at an Invisible Paralympic Sport: Giving Voice to Goalball Athletes' Lived Experiences Elaine B. Jenks and Andrew B. Jenks 15. "Human First, Athlete Second, and Disabled Person Third": An Edited Conversation with Paralympian, Ben Rushgrove Ben Rushgrove and Richard Scullion Afterword: A Personal Reflection on How We Can Communicate About Paralympic Athletes David Legg