Television representations
Activities
1. Get hold of the TV Times or Radio Times and look through them for the number of programmes on, and amount of time allocated to, disabled people or programmes which include disabled people. Keep a tally for the five terrestrial channels. Work out the percentage of broadcast time which includes programmes with a disability theme for each day and construct a bar chart.
2. Do the same activity by keeping a diary of all the TV you watch in a week.
3. Have a discussion in the class about whether you think the level of representation of disabled people is fair, and what the reasons might be for the current situation.
4. Think of your favourite TV 'soap' and write a storyline which would include a disabled character over six weeks. Make sure you include how they will interact with the regular characters. Pupils could use the Write a scene/storyline sheet (PDF) in Student handouts.
5. Find out how deaf people's needs are met on TV and report on it.
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