Social exclusion of life in the written media of the disabilities: the importance of media literacy and education

Abstract

Disability is not only a health problem faced by disabled people and their families; it is necessary to consider it as a situation closely related to social aspects and society. Disability is a social phenomenon that concerns the disabled, the family, the immediate surroundings, and the community to which they belong. Disabled individuals, like every human being, want to share their social surroundings and their experiences of briefly living their emotions, thoughts, dreams. However, even for non-disabled individuals, communication, which can be difficult under certain conditions, can become even more difficult for disabled people. Because the psycho-social structure, values, attitudes, perceptions of life, and thoughts of the individuals in society are different. Therefore, disabled individual who is evaluated as a pitiful and poor person by the influence of prejudices in the social perception process can be exposed to the negative attitudes of the society and be excluded. It is not an “obstacle” on the basis of the “disability” your disability faces; the society that prefers the difference created by the obstacle lies in the “obstructive attitudes” developed against the obstruction. Written media have been shown and proven as the reason for this difference in our work. Our work will be demonstrated by an in-depth interview methodology of approaching the subject of five disabled people with the highest number of disabled people in the TRNC. Negative perceptions of the disability within the society are not only something that the written media can correct, but are also closely connected with the consciousness of the associations’ authorities and their shaping of their strategies accordingly. We tried to emphasize the media importance of literacy and media literacy education in this area. The media literacy training program will reduce the negative representations created by the media and their negative consequences because there will be conscious media consumers. At this point, the social exclusion that the people living in the society in the presence of the media representatives of the disability will be reduced the most.