Media & Disability
Project development
Denmark
Actionplan
The Specialists
Focus on media representation of people with learning disabilities in Denmark.
Background
For the media to occupy themselves with a story, they have to know it exists.
If the media wants comments and opinions concerning an ongoing case, they need to know where to go and who to talk to in order to get hold of comments.
People with learning disabilities in Denmark, about whom a lot is written in the media, are very rarely invited to comment when a case concerning people with learning disabilities is circulating in the news.
Helplessness
People with learning disabilities in Denmark, whether it be individuals or representatives from a society or an organisation, rarely use communication strategies concerning cases of political, cultural or social issues , even though it concerns their own group.
This has much to do with the fact that they don’t have the necessary media training, for them to purposefully use the media in connection with influencing public opinion.
Generally, the people with learning disabilities are barely visible culturally and socially. This is due to a yearlong unsuccessful welfare policy, which has excluded the people with learning disabilities from education and raised and socialized them into helplessness.
New ways
In order to obtain an increased representation of people with learning disabilities in the media in Denmark, new ground has to be explored.
People with learning disabilities must be met with and supported in their wish to communicate with society. For example by establishing a number of forums where they like the rest of the population, are given the opportunity to communicate on their own premise, e.g. by way of modern communications technology,
In Denmark we have TV-Glad and a number of radio stations where people with learning disabilities can speak out, but these workplaces are inhabited by a small number of people pursuing their own stories, just like in any other media. (We are all familiar with the media’s inclination to copy each others stories).
Actually, what is missing is knowledge of what is of interest to people with learning disabilities on a daily basis; where they are, what particular interests they have and which skills they have quietly obtained and learned to master.
The specialists
On this background we wish to establish a website with the working title: ‘The Specialists’.
The Specialists is a forum and a video database, where people with learning disabilities can introduce themselves to each other as well as to the surrounding world, with a story, an opinion, an interest or an expression which can be presented by using video in a simple form.
The development of video by way of mobile phones etc. opens up an opportunity for those people with learning disabilities who cannot read or write, to present their skills and knowledge to others in a simple form,
These could be views on the right to have children, opinions and experiences of love, a story about a journey, a special interest, a knowledge of baroque music, a talent for reciting Tin-Tin stories word- for- word, a special and extensive knowledge of Danish movies, a specific knowledge of life on a bus-line in Copenhagen.
Visibility and goals
All of these stories and special knowledge, which people usually have recorded, mainly with mobile phones and uploaded to the website, must be available on video.
The videos will be categorised so you can search topics as well as single words: politics, love, sex & society, recollections of travels, medication, local authority procedures, humour, hobbies, pets etc.
The website will give an insight into the fact that people with learning disabilities have lots of qualifications and special knowledge in a lot of areas, which few people know about.
Likewise, it is desirable that the website will become a frequently visited forum for the development and exchange of views and opinions.
We believe that a website containing this information will increasingly open a possibility for people with learning disabilities to play a part in matters they usually find themselves excluded from.Among these are the media, who can use the website to search on specific cases, special interests and special knowledge which have been made available to the rest of the world.
Production
TV-Glad wishes to invite relevant representatives from the environment to take part in developing, establishing and carrying out the project
The work group will initially arrange 2 workshops in Denmark with participants from NGO’s, where people with learning disabilities are committed to different kinds of organisational work. The meetings will clarify the interest in the project, and qualify the participants to being ambassadors for the project. Likewise, a number of videos will be shot in order to exemplify the project.
Meetings: February and April.
PR
In March TV-Glad will produce a commercial in order to attract features and stories to the website.
The commercial will be aired on TV-Glad’s programming in Denmark.
Producing the website
External financing for the website is necessary, and in Denmark we have a number of funds which we expect will support the project.
A press conference will be held when the website is ready to be released.
We expect extensive media coverage
Mikkel Holmbäck & Henrik Marentius
TV-Glad
11/2006