The Invisible Citizen? Visibility, Disability and the Media-The Case Study of the Mirror and TellZim News Chiwewe Pepukai1, Maunganidze Golden2 1Great Zimbabwe University, P.O. Box 1235, Masvingo 2Great Zimbabwe University, Department of English and Media Studies, P.O. Box 1235, Masvingo Online published on 27 July, 2017. Abstract This paper seeks to explore the representation of people living with disabilities in the media with a specific focus on two regional newspapers in Masvingo province, The Mirror and TellZim News. This paper questions the role that Masvingo's two regional papers, TellZim News and The Mirror are playing in challenging the stereotypical views which have undermined the representation of people with disability. The paper also examines how the media are covering disability, tracking changes in the coverage of people with disabilities, and examine their impact on public attitudes towards people with disabilities. TellZim News and Mirror are analysed on how people with disabilities are accorded voices or platforms to participate in critical issues in the two regional papers. The paper employs Habermas’ theory of the public sphere and Max McCombs and Donald Shaw's Agenda Setting theory to examine whether the agenda which is set by the two regional papers has a bearing on the perceptions of disability in society. The paper employs interviews and document analysis in analysing the dominant images of people living with disabilities in the two papers. People living with disabilities, the non-disabled and editorial staffs of the two regional newspapers were interviewed to solicit their responses on the coverage of people living with disability. The paper concluded that the two regional papers to a greater extent reinforce and perpetuate stereotypical views of people living with disabilities than challenging them. People living with disabilities are represented as objects of charity, poor and discriminated in critical issues which affect them and are rarely afforded platforms to air out their views in the two newspapers Top Keywords Underrepresentation, misrepresentation, disabilities, discrimination, representation. Top |