The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on the Image of People with Disability in the Context of Creating Social Attitudes

Abstract

Every crisis ruins the activity of an individual, an organization and the whole society, carrying certain changes as well as the necessity of undertaking specific actions. In a situation of a crisis, communication plays a huge role among all engaged in fighting the effects. The COVID-19 pandemic being an example of such a society wide crisis has an influence of messages in the media as those are a form of communication in society. Then, the article touches on the aspect of creation of social attitudes towards people with disability using social campaigns in Polish media during pandemic. The author assumes, that during COVID-19 pandemic the way of creating social attitudes may have changed comparing to the picture of this minority built before. The aim of the article is therefore to identify the image of people with disability shaped before and during the pandemic in the context of the change in perceiving this group. The study includes the analysis of video and graphic materials of social campaigns published in Polish media between autumn 2019 and summer 2020 as well as the analysis of interviews carried out with authors of those campaigns. Moreover, initial conclusions and recommendations for further actions and studies in this area are suggested.