[Commlist] New report, free to download: ‘Re-presenting para-sport bodies: Disability and the cultural legacy of the Paralympic Games’

We are pleased to announce the publication of a new report on the 
broadcasting of the Paralympics in the UK.

Free to download from: http://pasccal.com/pasccal-project-report/ or 
direct download: 
http://pasccal.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/BU-3-Paralympic-Report-6.4.pdf 


This report details the findings of the AHRC project entitled 
‘Re-presenting Para-sport bodies: Disability and the cultural legacy of 
the Paralympic Games’. The project explored media constructions of 
disability through Paralympic sport and the impact on public attitudes 
and perceptions of disability. This report provides data 
and recommendations drawn from the first funded academic project to 
examine the implications of the rapid commercialisation of the 
Paralympic Games and the increasing visibility of disability in the 
media; influenced by the success of Channel 4’s entry as the United 
Kingdom’s official Paralympic broadcaster in 2012.

Through an integrated methodological approach, we provide a joined-up 
evidence base that captures the intentions and practices of Channel 4’s 
(C4) broadcasting of the Rio 2016 Paralympics; the influence of this on 
the content of Paralympic coverage and mediated forms of disability 
representation; and the wider impact on public attitudes toward 
disability. This approach allowed us to examine the important and 
influential relationship between Paralympic production 
practices, progressive social change and cultural legacies.

The report demonstrates the important cultural impact of the Paralympic 
Games and the extent socially progressive forms of disability 
representation can and do effect positive social change with respect to 
disability awareness. We argue that both the quality and quantity of 
Paralympic coverage by C4 has been an important vehicle in progressive 
forms of disability representation marked by greater inclusion, 
education, and visibility of disability. Here, we highlight some of the 
complexities and contradictions in the Paralympic legacy with respect to 
issues of inclusion and exclusion, empowerment and disempowerment, and 
forms of marginalisation. Through the report we provide a number of 
empirically-driven insights for progressive and sustainable Paralympic 
cultural legacies.


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