Dove commercial: man made disability

Just saw this Dove commercial about how low self esteem, which they call a "man made disability", affects a young woman named Katie. A woman in a wheelchair goes to pick up Katie, who has spent three hours getting ready. Katie decides not to go out, doesn't answer the door and then texts her wheelchair using friend that she's sorry she couldn't make it. The wheelchair user is shown as being active , out and about and less disabled. What's your reaction?

Creating a mainstream, accessible, inclusive media platform for people with disabilities

I applaud diversity in media, as demonstrated in this piece about political pundits.

I'd also like to mention that [with]tv is working to set up a mainstream, accessible, inclusive media platform for people with disabilities.

[with]tv's founder has written a post recently for the consideration of the disability community - and everyone else. You can read the rest over there....


with]tv means to get the message out to everyone in the right way. We begin broadcasting as a mainstream, accessible, inclusive media platform for people with disabilities. Having a hard time imagining what I envision? OK. How is this? Go home and watch TV for one week, 168 hours. Now imagine that of all the people you saw on TV more than 20%+ were people with disabilities. Now imagine that for all the people behind the camera 20%+ in all departments and at all levels of the company!

Imagine that all the commercials you see are close captioned, narrated for the blind and have actors with disabilities as principals, background actors and voice over talent.

Imagine that many, but not all, story lines were concerned with issues directly related to our lifestyle. Now imagine that all this content was not only entertaining for ALL viewers but along with all commercials was close captioned and narrated for the blind. Imagine that in addition to news, weather, sports and information shows we were creating drama, comedy, variety, reality shows and that all the major producers in the industry were creating shows for us too. Now imagine this content is available on your TV, computer, cell phone, and all over the world in other languages. That is what would give us what we want. That is what we envision at [with]tv. That is what we intend to do, not to ask others to do part of for us.

....

Now we need advertisers, corporate sponsors, media company mentors and we need investors. We have everything else. We need YOU and others just like you.

Huffington reports Pew results on news consumption

From the Huffington Post, a report that TV remains the top source of news:

Pew found that the largest group of news consumers _ 46 percent of those polled _ have a "heavy reliance" on television for their news at all times of the day. This group is the oldest, with a median age of 52, and least affluent, with 43 percent unemployed. They are unlikely to own a computer or go online for news.

Overall, among those who get some of their news from TV, fewer are watching the 6:30 broadcast network newscasts, and instead opting for cable news sources such as CNN or Fox News Channel.....The group that relies most on the Internet for news is the youngest at a median age of 35. .. and the shift among integrators online led to an overall decline in the percentage of people who said they read a newspaper the day before, to 34 percent from 40 percent two years ago, the researchers found.

The media - mea culpa?

An interview with an archbishop resulted in a media frenzy releasing and revising the list of sins. This article points out that this results from the misunderstanding of what sin is and media 'blind spots'.

Commentary: Reality TV: Behind the camera

There's an interesting article in the NY Times about the role of producers and those involved in the production of reality TV shows - and what happens when the participants being filmed are about to engage in unsafe or illegal behavior. It gives the example of an alcoholic who gets intoxicated and wants to drive off.

This raises questions on legal grounds but also moral ones. When the show Kid Nation was first announced, there was an outcry from groups about child labor laws and agencies protecting children. Is it morally right to put forty kids in a deserted town and do a reality show a la social experiment a la entertainment vehicle? I'm not on the set and don't know what protective measures were taken, so I can't comment on this particular show, but it does raise questions about leaving such decisions up to producers . Local child agencies can provide oversight, but is this sufficient and will it be done in a timely way? Is the protection in place sufficient?

These concerns are the subject of investigations by AFTRA and the New Mexico Attorney General's office according to this LA Times article....

"In a press release, AFTRA National Executive Director Kim Roberts Hedgpeth said that AFTRA would take "all legal and moral steps available to protect the rights of the performers and children on this program."

"We are concerned about reports of abuse arising from 'Kid Nation,' which was produced under the AFTRA National Code of Fair Practices for Network Television Broadcasting," she said. "Under this agreement, the host, announcer, reporters and other professional performers on reality and contest programming are specifically covered by the terms of the Network Code, while the amateur contestants are generally not."

Among the issues the attorney general will review will be the production's permit process, the 22-page contract between parents and the producers, and whether the production company illegally refused to allow inspectors onto the property for routine inspections."

via http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/tv/la-et-kidnation27aug27,1,2448150.story?coll=la-entnews-tv

There are potentially all kinds of situations that could occur that require intervention by producers, camera people and the like. Yet the NY Times article (linked via the heading) quotes one producer of an adult reality show as saying they have no legal responsibility to intervene - even on a show called Intervention dealing with an alcoholic driving. To say that ends the issue, however, falls short in my opinion. I'm not against such shows, nor am I taking the position of attacking any particular one because, for all I know, its producers have put in place protective measures and those agencies investigating know far better than me what went on - but this is a new and growing trend and does call for attention.

I think it's safe to say that if Kid Nation gets good reviews, there will be more reality shows for children as well as adults. This issue isn't going to go away. As more of these shows emerge, shouldn't our society respond with laws and regulations that better protect participants - particularly minors? What about mandating the presence of child advocates on the set? After all, parents are not on the set, nor do the children come home at night.

Reality TV, in my opinion, is not and never will be total reality. And we need to get real about the fact that, particularly when vulnerable populations are being filmed, they need protection from those who can profit from exploiting them for entertainment value.

UPDATE: Several days after I posted this, an article appeared on the same topic here.

Endeavor Freedom TV

And here we have the start of another TV channel for pwd. Received an email from this nonprofit organization this morning. Their site reads:

"...based near Athens, GA, founded in 2001 to assist people with disabilities in transitioning from nursing homes and institutions back into the community.

This year Endeavor Freedom, Inc. received a grant to create a media organization for people with disabilities run by people with disabilities".

The idea came into being when advocates realized that disability issues weren't receiving coverage from the mainstream media. The site reads:

"People with disabilities make-up 20% of the population and yet disability news, stories, and events make up less than 3% of what the corporate media reports on. If you happen to be in a minority with a disability you are represented even less, and if you are poor and a minority with a disability, then truly nothing in mainstream culture reflect your/our everyday experience of life. EndeavorFreedom.tv wants to change all that. We want to capture and relay the everyday stories of everyday struggle by everyday people with disabilities just trying to manage the American dream here in the land of the free and the home of the brave. We want you to be the hero, the star, the story and we want you to share with us the stories that you consider news, issues which are important to you, that are rarely if ever seen on corporate news."

I went over to YouTube and looked under endeavor freedom and found quite a few videos. Here's one that's a great example of the power of media for pwd. It's called "About being considered retarded". This six minute long video is well worth an entire watch. One of the most important messages is toward the end, and deals with observations about how society has difficulties treating people with cognitive disabilities as other than non-persons. It's a powerful message.