Disability and discourse: how people with disability are represented in Saudi Newspapers

Fahad Saud Al Hussen, Mohammed Q. Shormani () and Abdulrahman Alfahad
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Fahad Saud Al Hussen: King Saud University
Mohammed Q. Shormani: Ibb University
Abdulrahman Alfahad: King Saud University

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 2025, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-16

Abstract: Abstract This article provides an interdisciplinary study on how disabled people and disability are represented in Saudi Newspapers. It presents a corpus-based study of naming practices of disabled people in Saudi Newspapers for a period spanning between 2000 and 2020. The data were extracted and then analysed by Ghawwas_V6. The analysis focused on two criteria: person-first and identity-first, which are both syntax-discourse-based naming practices. The study employs a syntax-discourse approach amalgamated with medical, social, and religious models of media representation, and drawing on social actors in terms of head nouns, modifiers and coordinating constructions collocating with disabled and (with) disability. It provides novel contributions to the study of disability within discourse framework. For example, the category “Motivation/encouragement” was necessitated by the encouragement disabled people experience in Saudi Arabia. Another novel contribution concerns the category Association/coordination, which involves collocates with disabled/(with) disability related to services, care and opportunities people with disability receive such as education, employment, qualifications, training programs, etc. The study concludes that person-first, i.e. people with disability, language dominates disability representation in Saudi Newspapers more than identity-first, i.e., disabled people.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1057/s41599-025-05933-2

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