THEMATIC ANALYSIS OF DISABILITY COVERAGE: HOPES AND HARDSHIPS OF PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) was used for analysis of themes and kinds of portrayal of people with disabilities in the written content, and audio and video transcripts of 31 placed entries for the National Center on Disability and Journalism contest from 2013-2020. With transitivity analysis as the method of analysis, there was uncovering of material goal not processes, relational identifying and behavioral processes that led to identifying themes of negligence, incompetence and violence against, and occasionally by people with disabilities. Implications for future research include using transitivity analysis in disability and journalism studies research to examine subjects as Actors, Behavers and more through the transitivity process. Additionally, further research can be conducted on the journalistic process of “calling out,” a term coined as linked to transitivity analysis in this study to mean the identifying action when reporters highlight negative or failed actions on the part of people or corporations in news content.