Newspaper coverage of people with disabilities in Canada and Israel: an international comparison

In this research study we compared how three Canadian and three Israeli new spapers wrote about people with disabilities over a 3-month period. The com parison included structural variables, such as the length of the articles, where they appeared, whether photographs were used, etc. We also examined c ontent variables, such as who the main character was, the details used to d escribe this individual or group, and what governmental agencies, service p roviders and problems were mentioned. Finally, we looked at whether the art icle was progressive, traditional or mixed in its perspective. Our findings showed a number of significant differences between Canada and Israel. Equa lly noteworthy, however, were the considerable similarities, such as freque nt problems with finances and services, and most of the articles being trad itional in focus. The paper concludes with an analysis of the newspaper bus iness and the implications of this for altering the image of disabled peopl e in the media.