The Image of People with Disabilities in the Ukrainian Online Media Ukrainska Pravda
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17721/CIMC.2026.39.71-82Keywords:
people with disabilities, media, social issues, inclusion, image, medical aspects, legal aspects, sports aspects, political aspects, social aspectsAbstract
This study aims to identify trends in the coverage of people with disabilities in the online media outlet Ukrainska Pravda from 2015 to 2019 and investigate whether these trends changed in 2025. Method. The following keywords were chosen for the study: disabled people, people with disabilities, individuals with limited abilities, individuals with special needs, persons with disabilities, and people with additional needs. Results. The analysis revealed that the number of materials published between 2015 and 2019 fluctuated, depending on social events. Coverage increased during the Paralympic Games, highlighting the victories of athletes with disabilities. However, during other periods, coverage was limited to isolated materials about these people. The findings demonstrate that social, legal, and sports aspects received the most attention, while medical and educational aspects were less frequently addressed. Political, scientific, and cultural aspects were largely absent from the information space. Among the main genres covering people with disabilities, notes and articles were the most common, followed by reports, author columns, and life stories. Content about people with disabilities draw attention when centered around achievements. In early 2015, the coverage mostly focused on the challenges faced by people with disabilities. In subsequent years, it shifted to their physical and moral accomplishments. There were also notable changes in how individuals with disabilities perceived themselves, with journalists aiming to reflect these positive developments to society, encouraging recognition of their equality and the creation of conditions for their comfortable living. The year 2018 saw the highest number of materials – 50. Compared to 2025, the trend changed, with the number of materials reaching 103. This increase is attributed to the full-scale war, which heightened this medium's focus on medical issues, as many people have been wounded and have become disabled. Conversely, sports coverage marked a decline. In 2025, materials about people with disabilities continued to appear in the same genres as those from 2015 to 2019, with the addition of interviews and surveys that journalists used to foster dialogue with society, particularly with people with disabilities.
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Data Availability Statement
The database of materials for 2025 is presented at:
Polumysna, O. (2026). CIMC - Supplementary material of articles published in The Current Issues of Mass Communication. Polumysna, O. Issue 39 [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19442298
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