Boring Autism Newsfeed Classification 101

Published June 03, 2009 @ 09:22AM PT

Sometimes stories come through in the news feeds that inspire, incite, or otherwise grab my attention and demand that I write about them. But the longer I watch the feeds, the less often that happens, the more often the same old stories just repeat themselves with different names. Here's a sampling of some endlessly recycled stories that have especially irritated me in last few days, in no particular order:

Story #1: Amazing Supercrip Does Something that Goes Against Autism Stereotypes! OMGWOW! These are stories about "overcoming," "in spite of," and "against all odds." Often they genuinely are about something newsworthy and cool, only media-spun straight to the land of dehumanizing. These stories can't just say so-and-so did something cool, they have to somehow compare it to the person's autism. And the more dramatically the better. It's never "Jane Doe sang the national anthem at the ball game," or even "Jane Doe, who is autistic, sang the national anthem at the ball game." No, it's "When Jane Doe was 5, doctors said she'd never talk. Death bells tolled. It rained over her house every day for six years straight. But now! Against all odds! Jane Doe has conquered her autism to sing the national anthem at the ball game--in spite of what those doctors said!" Um... what part of singing the national anthem at the ball game wasn't incredibly cool enough? For anyone! Ah, the disablism of the media...

Story #2: I Sold My Body Parts for Autism. All about the money spent on autism. Or donated to autism. Or sacrificed for autism. I've sold my lungs, liver, and right index finger for autism. Never considering the social implications of putting a price tag on a person's life.

Story #3: Fundraiser for Awareness and Eradication! Ooo goodie! If it says "walk for autism," it's one of these stories. If it says "ball for autism," "dinner for autism," "golfing for autism," or (like over 50% of the stories in my google alerts this week) "racing cars for autism," it's also one of these stories. A bunch of people (who are not autistic) pat themselves on the back for obtaining money to do things that autistic people have not said they are actually interested in having done. Bonus points for heavy pity angles.

Story #4: Transporters Video. I kid you not, this really is a whole story classification unto itself. A non-small percentage of total stories that come through my feeds are this story over and over. And then over. I was complaining about how over and over this story was all the way back in February. But clearly, it's not over. The marketing people for this video are amazing. This story just won't leave my feeds. It comes in waves. It lasts for months on end. The most newsworthy thing about this video is how amazingly newsworthy it continues to be even though it's been circulating forever with no actual new information (or old information for that matter).

There are more of categories of autism news story, but I'll save them for another day when my feeds are relentlessly repetitive and redundantly redundant and therefor I've nothing to write about except how much the stories in the feeds suck. I don't think I'd mind so much if it wasn't for the fact that there's so much injustice--and also so much beauty--that never gets the coverage it deserves.

The same old boring stories get reported on while real atrocities are neglected. Is the Transporters video really more important than not having basic civil rights? Than dying because you have no basic civil rights? Really?

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Comments (6)

Yeah, They hardly ever talk about places were adversives are done or things like that.
Truly annoying.

Posted by Shondolyn (Synesthesia) Gibson on 06/03/2009 @ 05:02PM PT
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Yes. Exactly.

Posted by Dora Raymaker on 06/04/2009 @ 12:10AM PT
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OMG - remember how autistic people have no sense of humor? You absolutely crack me up. I had to read your whole post aloud to my poor husband, who is constantly listening to me rant about having the write the same autism stories over and over again... thanks for the laugh! Lisa (www.autism.about.com)

Posted by Lisa Jo Rudy on 06/04/2009 @ 05:09AM PT
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OMGWOW! Dora overcomes autism to snark! News at 11! ;-P

Posted by Dora Raymaker on 06/04/2009 @ 10:12AM PT
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It's sort of the "J-Mac" phenomenon: We only want to hear about you when you do something that we think is worthy of media attention according to our accepted standards and the need for ratings.

[just having a cynical moment]

Posted by Kristina Chew on 06/04/2009 @ 08:37AM PT
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Likely in part yes. I wonder too how much of it is that when reporters see one of these stories they think, "oh, that it what people want to hear about," so that's what they write about when they get the chance too. Also, unfortunately, there are probably individuals with strong marketing capabilities who bring some of these stories to the attention of the press, while stuff like instituitional abuse is a little harder to access and may take more active work on the part of the reporters. I'm just guessing on that one, but I do think the feedback cycle about what makes a "good autism story" is at play.

Posted by Dora Raymaker on 06/04/2009 @ 10:32AM PT
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Dora is committed to improving quality of life for individuals on the autistic spectrum--including herself! She is Co-director of the Academic Autistic Spectrum Partnership in Research and Education and a member of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network's Board of Directors.