Hero or Victim: Not the Only Choices

This article shows how the media can help make the public's opinions about certain groups of people. The article does this with a great example. The author raises the question of why people in wheelchairs are always depicted as a hero or a victim, never just an ordinary person with a story to tell. Not necessarily about how they came to be sitting in a wheelchair or how they overcame such a struggle with flying colors.

When news writers are asked why they don't add to stories about people in wheelchairs when they do act badly or inappropriately; they simply reply that they feel it is ingrained in them to speak of how people that are in wheelchairs overcome it. They don't realize that maybe some one needs to show the public that just because a person is in a wheelchair does not mean that they are a good person trying to inspire us all.

This article speaks wonders. Just because people have to use a wheelchair does not mean that they want to be that "heroic or victimized person in the wheelchair." Maybe they want to be looked at as just another normal human being. I feel that this disability biased, and yes it is a biased, in stories helped make the public think this way. People with disabilities as well as every other person on this planet should be treated the same. A news writer should realize they are doing their duty by telling the true story, not always the one the public wants or expects to hear.

If you would like to read more, here is the link to the article:

http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=78&aid=137798