[ecrea] Call for chapter proposals: Routledge edited collection on the media and Paralympics

We are seeking two chapters for an edited collection on the media and 
the 2012 Paralympics, which will be published by Routledge in 2014.

The opportunity has arisen due to two of our authors having to drop out.

If interested, please send an approx 500 word abstract to Dan Jackson 
(jacksond /at/ bournemouth.ac.uk) by 14 October 2013 at the latest.

The chapter deadlines for information are below, and anyone interested 
would need to commit to these.

Friday 17 Jan 2014 - deadline for draft of your chapter
Friday 7 Feb 2014 - deadline for final chapter, incorporating editor 
comments.

Further information about the collection can be found below. We would 
not expect authors to link to all of these themes and we are open to 
studies looking at disability beyond the Paralympics.. I'm happy to have 
an informal chat about your prospective chapter should you have any 
questions.


Provisional title: Reframing disability? Media, (dis)empowerment and 
voice in the London Paralympics
Edited by Daniel Jackson, Caroline Hodges, Mike Molesworth and Richard 
Scullion
Routledge, 2014


The 2012 Paralympics was the biggest ever, the most accessible and best 
attended in its 64-year history. In the UK it received media publicity 
and reportage on an unprecedented scale. The Paralympics and ideas of 
disability associated with the Games provide significant opportunity for 
reflection on how far societal opinions, attitudes and behaviour have 
changed regarding disability. In 2012 - the first ever “legacy games” - 
an explicit aim of the Paralympics was to “transform the perception of 
disabled people in society”, (Channel 4), and use sport to contribute to 
“a better world for all people with a disability” (IPC 2011 in Purdue & 
Howe 2011, p. 7). The 2012 Games therefore came with a social agenda: to 
challenge the current perceptions many people have about disability and 
disability sport. It offered the potential to re-frame disability; to 
symbolically challenge ‘ableist’ ideology; to offer “a reinvention of 
the (dis)abled body and a redefinition of the possible”
(Hargreaves, 2000, p. 199).
In this book we investigate what has and is happening in relation to 
these grand ambitions. In the past, the media (both sports broadcasters 
and news organisations) have been criticised for the lack of Paralympics 
coverage, and for narratives that focus on patronising portrayals of 
brave, elite athletes who overcome their disability. As has been 
suggested by earlier studies of media and disability, such media 
representations fit well within the established power relations, which 
oppress disabled people in society. Our book will ask what were the 
predominant narratives surrounding the Paralympics, and what are the 
associated meanings attached to this? It will offer a number of 
perspectives in answering these questions:

-        What were the key challenges broadcasters faced in covering the 
Paralympics, and how did they respond to them?

-        What was the predominant imagery, narratives and meanings 
associated with the Paralympics in media coverage?

-        What narratives did news organisations favour in their coverage 
of the Paralympics? How did these narratives compare to the concurrent 
news coverage of welfare reform in 2012?

-        What messages did the promotional communications for the 
Paralympics (and associated sponsors) tell us about the role of 
disability in society?

-        Did the Paralympics inspire a more general shift in 
representation of disabled people in popular culture?

The second theme of the book begins to unpack the impact and legacy of 
the 2012 Paralympics. In this section we ask how was the Paralympics 
experienced by media audiences (both disabled and non-disabled)? 
Historically, elite disability sport has struggled for the public’s 
attention and acceptance as ‘elite’. Summer 2012 brought an opportunity 
to challenge societal views of disability and disability sport. We ask 
whether and to what extent any process of transformation was 
experienced. We bring particular focus to the lived experiences of 
disability, and how disability was negotiated in the lifeworld of both 
non-disabled and disabled people. Chapters will consider:

-        How did the 2012 Paralympics change the way that people view 
elite disability sport?

-        How did the 2012 Paralympics change the way that people 
perceive disability in everyday life?

-        What emotions did watching the 2012 Paralympics evoke amongst 
audiences?

-        What frames of reference did audiences refer to when 
experiencing engaging with disability and the Paralympics?


The third theme of the book looks more closely at whether the 2012 
Paralympics inspired social change, especially for disabled people. 
Although the Paralympic Games have been widely understood and promoted 
as potentially empowering for athletes and disabled people in society, 
the empowerment of these populations still needs to be critically 
examined. Contributions will assess:

-        How did elite athletes with a disability experience the 2012 
Paralympics with respect to the dominant IPC and media narratives 
surrounding disability sport?

-        How was the (seemingly) overwhelming positivity of the Olympics 
and Paralympics experienced by those disabled people who were 
simultaneously experiencing everyday challenges such as facing cuts to 
their disability benefits?

-        How did disabled people identify with the dominant Paralympic 
narratives?

-        Did the Paralympics give a sense of empowerment to disabled 
people, and how was this manifest?

Each section of this book will be interspersed with ‘voices’ from 
outside academia: from the broadcasters, athletes, volunteers and 
disabled schoolchildren. The authentic voices from the disabled 
community come from students at Victoria Education Centre in Poole, 
Dorset – a residential and day school offering care, therapy and 
education for young disabled people from 3-19 years old. All students 
have physical disabilities or complex medical conditions and many have 
additional needs including communication difficulties, learning 
difficulties and sensory impairments. The students’ contributions will 
be in the form of poetry, creative writing and comic strips.
The aim of bringing in voices from outside the academy is to tell a 
story of the media and disability in the context of the 2012 Paralympics 
from a number of perspectives: to document some of the inspirational 
stories and to shine a light into some of the cracks that lay beneath 
the exterior.




Dr.  Dan Jackson
Senior  Lecturer in Media and Communications
Deputy Programme  Co-ordinator, BA Public Relations
The Media  School
Bournemouth  University
W410  Weymouth House
Talbot  Campus
01202  961297
(jacksond /at/ bournemouth.ac.uk)
@dan_jackson9


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