Hosting the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics has increased the coverage of para-sports; however, was the content respectful of the athletes? In this study, content analysis of highlight programs broadcast during the Tokyo 2020 and Beijing 2022 Paralympics was performed to determine the trends in the representation of gender and disability among Paralympic athletes, examine discriminatory expressions, and identify the characteristics of the two games.
The results indicate multilayered biases and challenges related to gender and disability in terms of coverage and representation in both the sporting events. The coverage focused on Japanese athletes, mostly male athletes, with more stereotyping and biases in the representation of female athletes. Physical disabilities were the most frequently mentioned disabilities in both events, particularly in Beijing, constituting approximately 90% of the total disabilities. This was likely due to a lack of athletes with intellectual disabilities in the Winter Paralympics. In terms of expressions related to athletes’ disabilities, athletes who have been competing for a long time and have won medals were often referred to as “legends”. In addition, seemingly positive terms such as “superhuman” etc., that reinforce the stereotype of the athlete as dependent on others, were intermittently used. The low coverage of female athletes in the Beijing Paralympics may be attributable to the low participation rate of Japanese female athletes (27.6%), which was lower than that of male athletes.
This study is an analysis of one broadcasting station’s highlight programs and cannot be considered a trend in Japanese TV coverage as a whole. However, we infer that Paralympic athletes need equal and unbiased coverage with respect to gender and disabilities, to achieve respectful representation as athletes.
