The image of people with intellectual disability in Taiwan newspapers.
BACKGROUND
There is limited research on the development of newspaper analysis about the images of people with ID in Chinese newspapers. The purpose of this study was: (a) to understand the general image of persons with ID presented in printed newspapers in Taiwan, and (b) to classify the various images of persons with ID and to measure the relative proportions among these classifications.


METHODS
Articles from 2008 from the media databank UDNDATA were analysed by content analysis.


RESULTS
Three main images were portrayed. The greatest number of articles revolved around the "dispirited" image (44.5%), followed by "needy" (32.7%), and "affirmative" (22.8%). Articles focused on families with a member with ID made up 20.8% of the total articles, and 81% of these stories had a negative theme.


CONCLUSIONS
The pessimistic portrayal of people with ID is popular and newspapers may create stigma for people with ID in Taiwan.
Institute of Allied Health Sciences, National Cheng Kung University, No.1 University Road, Tainan, Taiwan.
Chih-Hsuan
CH
Chen
Kan-Lin
KL
Hsu
Bih-Ching
BC
Shu
Susan
S
Fetzer
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D002648:Child; D006801:Humans; D008607:Intellectual Disability / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D009524:Newspapers as Topic; D011639:Public Opinion; D013240:Stereotyping; D013624:Taiwan