Fourteenth International Conference on Sport & Society

Abstract

The Paralympic Games are a major athletic event. The research was part of a larger project looking into representations of disability. Indeed, this work illustrates the differences and similarities that emerge from media coverage of the 2008, 2012, and 2016 Paralympic Games in French and Tunisian newspapers, two nations with two different cultures. The statistical analysis using the Chi-squared test, the content analysis of discourse, and photo analysis, employed in this work, allowed us to get a first look at how impaired athletes are treated in Tunisia, an area that has previously been untapped. Second, to compare the findings with those of other researchers in the field. Results show certain forms of discrimination between disabled and able-bodied athletes, but also between men and women in the two countries, in addition to the differences in treatment in the photos, in particular the way in which Tunisian women are exposed.