The paper titled “Giving Disability the Hollywood Treatment: Channel 4 and the Broadcasting of the Paralympic Games” is based on interviews with Paralympic broadcasters in the UK, as part of an Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded project on the cultural legacy of the 2016 Rio Paralympics (grant ref: AH/P003842/1).
It is the first study of its kind to explore the mediation of para-sport broadcasting by highlighting the production decisions taken by the UK’s official Paralympic Broadcaster and the impact on audience perceptions and attitudes towards disability. Alongside academic outputs, the findings will be also translated into a number of creative artworks and a documentary film available to the public toward the end of the project.
