Presentation of news articles and columns about people who have disabilities in Birgün, Cumhuriyet, Hürriyet and Yeni Şafak newspapers

The subject of this study is the analysis of the approaches of the newspapers Birgün, Cumhuriyet, Hürriyet and Yeni Şafak, which were selected to represent the Turkish press, to the people with disabilities and the phenomenon of disability with the help of news articles and columns published in these newspapers between January 1 and December 31, 2005. While evaluating the approaches of the newspapers to the phenomenon of disability, the dominant beliefs, values and stereotypes in the society regarding the people with disabilities were taken into consideration. In addition, the approaches of newspapers were evaluated in the context of supply-oriented and profit-driven journalism, which emerged from the technological and economic transformation in the field of communication and media since the 1980s. In the study, disability studies which emphasize physical and social barriers that exclude the people with disabilities from social participation systematically constitute one of the important points of reference. In this context, the general framework of the study consists of the analysis of the concepts of news and journalism in the framework of the economical-political transformation of the communication, media and press areas especially after the 1980s, the evaluation of the phenomenon of disability in relation to dominant beliefs, values and stereotypes about the people with disabilities, and the determination of the approach of the Turkish press to the people with disabilities and the phenomenon of disability with the help of newspapers selected as examples. In this respect, the study aims to reveal the attitude of press towards the people with disabilities. Quantitative and qualitative analysis methods were used in the study. In the quantitative analysis stage, numerical distributions of news articles and columns published about the people with disabilities on all pages of newspapers were determined. In the qualitative analysis stage, critical discourse analysis was applied to the news articles published in the newspapers. In conclusion, it was seen that the news articles published about the people with disability and the phenomenon of disability are gathered around certain themes, and they are frequently produced news by publisher organizations and agencies that focus on circulation and profit by revealing the feelings such as compassion, mercy and sadness. In addition, it was observed that these news articles and columns often have intellectual similarities with the common belief that reduces the social exclusion of the people with disabilities to their personal "incompetence". In this regard, the news articles and columns covered by the study have made the common beliefs, values and stereotypes about the people with disabilities widespread by repeating them, and made the physical and social barriers that systematically exclude these people from a complete social participation less visible by bringing up these subjects less often. Keywords: Representation of people with disabilities in the media, People with disabilities and news articles, Disability studies, Social exclusion, Social model, Discrimination.