Your opinions on how the media portrays us

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I'm actually a bit disappointed, the networks from my experience will mention a story about autism in passing, to the people reporting it its a throwaway story with little significance or relevance. When these stories surface they will happen as infrequently as a couple of months at a time I'm not hyperbolizing. The care these news teams give to such stories is completely minimal, they think its inconsequential. The NT media also has trouble making the connection about how societies brightest minds owe much of their capabilities to the disability, they think its coincidental that they bare characteristics similar to people on our spectrum. Sometimes they will credit an famous persons genius to their upbringing, strong parental figures, or good education but they never elude to the fact that a disability like aspergers might've played a role. They don't even want to think that its apart of some of these people.

Of course I was only talking about the major networks and assorted cable networks, smaller media outlets like mom and pop publications tend to take more initiative in providing stories that do justice for the community.

This thread is for those to give input on how they feel the media has portrayed us. Also if this thread has been tossed around before please notify me but still try to think of something new to post to keep the discussion going. Reading the forum history a lot of threads have similar content get repeated ad nauseum.

They could use a little improvement, and that insensitive guy who blamed violence such as school shooting on Asperger's needs to have his mind set evaluated...

I actually don't mind it when Autism isn't in the news. I'd rather have it portrayed by self advocacy and positive media messages. Of course, we can't exactly leave that up to Autism Speaks.

Ugh. Either we're portrayed as terrifying monsters, pathetic babies, or some weird combination of the two. Even "inspiring" stories about autistic people achieving something-or-other are unbearably condescending and have a freak-show quality about them. Maybe a little of that is inevitable in such a story but when it is obviously made with the assumption that an autistic adult is essentially a four-year-old NT (and that no autistic person will ever watch the show), that's excessive.

Honestly i don't see bad things about Autism Spectrum in the news.
Too many people, many people with money and power have Autistic children and they most certainly do not want to see their children
stigmatized.
1 in 88.

The Lanza case is an anomaly. Even with that, i don't see the media jumping on Aspergers. They may mention he was his diagnosis thats it.

What was his mother's diagnosis? She was a hardcore prepper who assumed the world would end Dec 21. Perhaps they really believed it obviously the family had mental health issues in general.

Most all media stories unless they have a high death rate or something that actually keeps the attention of the population have a passing rate.
Any news comes and goes.
Whatever brings the most attention sells.

I don't really see Autism being sh*t on in the media at all, do you have any specifics you are thinking of or links?

Is this all about Adam Lanza?
Or does anyone have any other links to other articles, that have nothing to do with Lanza and are not blogs yet actual news articles, not opinions either, fact based crap?

One thing I can say is the "Aspergers makes you a genius" routine was difficlt on someone like me who's learning disabled. Now I've been told that I'm very intelligent and I do have an IQ of 122. But at the same time I dumb as a fencepost.

I've got to be honest, I don't care about us largely being passed over in the media. We've only 1% of the population, it makes sense that we don't get many big stories. No news is good news. Negative reporting, on the other hand, I am not a fan of, but most reporting seems to just be "autism is a thing and some people talked about it".

It's been truly ridiculous initially and has gone through several negative vicissitudes ever since, the misconceptions, ill-informed generalizations, and how autism is depicted. The stereotyping of ASD's is highly divergent, but it is pontificatingly assumed that we are heartless, mentally incapacitated, in need of parental discipline, contumacious towards NT society and authority, and most of all, exhibit a cognitive-behavioral profile as precise as "Rain Man's." Messages from neurodiversity and self-advocate groups tend to be deliberately overlooked by the mainstream media, and they instead often correspond with Autism Speak's objectives (they will never speak for me, and I averse their stupefied "light it up blue" campaign), as-well as prioritizing with their typically rhetoric statements about ASD's. Some of the exemplifications of the media's misconceptions about Autism spectrum disorders include the following:

“All individuals on the Autistic spectrum are prodigious savants”

The Hollywood film Rain Man (1988) has inadvertently imposed an incorrect media stereotype that people with Autism typically possess savant skills. It has also dispelled various other misconceptions about autism, and has led to an ineluctable improvement of public awareness, as they have been conveyed by the notion that various support agencies had failed to accommodate those with autism and form efficient use of their own strengths, irrespective whether they are gifted, talented, or have savant skills. According to Darold A. Treffert, MD of the University of Wisconsin Medical School, Madison:

“Savant syndrome is a rare, but extraordinary, condition in which persons with serious mental disabilities, including autistic disorder, have some 'island of genius' which stands in marked, incongruous contrast to overall handicap. As many as one in 10 persons with autistic disorder have such remarkable abilities in varying degrees, although savant syndrome occurs in other developmental disabilities or in other types of central nervous system injury or disease as well. Whatever the particular savant skill, it is always linked to massive memory.”

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19528017
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2677584/
D.A. Treffert. "The savant syndrome: an extraordinary condition. A synopsis: past, present, future." Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2009 May 27;364(1522):1351-7


“Individual's with ASD are entirely non-verbal.”

About 50% of those diagnosed with classical autism are non-verbal or classified as mute, whereas others can express themselves to some limited extent. Individuals diagnosed with High-functioning autism or Asperger’s syndrome have at least near normal linguistic development, and a fair proportion amongst them have an exceptional level of reading comprehension juxtaposed with superior verbalisation abilities (e.g. advanced vocabulary, and long-winded pedantic responses).


"Autism is caused by inadequate parental nurturing."

In the 1940-50’s, it was once hypothesized by developmental psychologists and child psychiatrists that autism could be caused by cold and unaffectionate mothering, this may be exemplified as severe neglectance, or withdrawal of affection, this was known as: “Refrigerator mother theory.” Since the 1960's, nevertheless, the theory has been thoroughly disproven ever since it was discovered by neuroscientists that autism is biologically based in nature and was not a psychiatric implication of emotional abuse.


“People with ASD’s are mentally/intellectually ret*d”

Although there is a clear negative correlation between classical autism and intellectual impairment, an approximate 20-25% of individuals with autism demonstrate at least a normal degree of adaptive behavioral capability and intellectual development; therefore, they are classified as “high-functioning autistics”. Likewise, there is general scientific consensus that not only cognitive abilities are left intact in Asperger’s syndrome, but may in some cases function in the level of intellectual giftedness. Some gifted people with AS can enhance creativity, and it has been speculated (based on autobiographical accounts) that some of the greatest innovators and thinkers (i.e. Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton) of the past few centuries exhibited the classical symptomatic aspects of Asperger’s syndrome.


“ASD is caused by childhood immunizations”

Some people, including medical scientists, believe that there is a significant correlation with child immunizations (i.e. MMR) as a primary factor to the development of ASD; however, there is substantial evidence which concludes that ASD has a diverse genetic/heritability component (Asperger’s syndrome in particular), and researchers have found no scientific connection between ASD and childhood vaccines.


"People with ASD's are psychologically or genetically predisposed to committing dangerous acts of violence"

It has been hypothesized, yet disputed by the media that Adam Lanza, who committed a barbaric act of violence at Sandy Hook, Newtown, Connecticut, may have been diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome (not officially confirmed). Although there are some autistic individuals who indeed exhibit violent behaviors, those behaviors are almost always caused by frustration, physical and/or sensory overload, and self-injurious tendencies; therefore, it is exceedingly rare for autistics to act violently out of malice. Autism advocacy groups have campaigned by clarifying that ASD is a neurological abnormality of the brain, and not a mental illness. This of course was imperative to plan out in order to withhold any forms of backlash towards the ASD population that would have been consequential due to the media's published accounts of Lanza.

_________________
Diagnosed with "Classical" Asperger's syndrome in 1998 (Clinical psychologist).
AQ: 48/50

If a reporter were reading this thread, i'm sure they'd wonder why some are complaining so much about this "negativity" in the media which doesn't seem to exist.

Not even with Lanza. Obvious thats a moneymaker of a story so any news outlet will try to sell it. Once the hype dies down its old news.
I've not heard one thing derogatory mentioned about Autism Spectrum Disorders.

News reports based on facts are different than opinioned articles or blogs written by randoms throughtout the internet that may appear in article form, although they aren't tied to a network.

I'm in the USA so that is what i'm referring to. I'm not sure of other countries.

1 in 88 here is the number thats what they say.
Too many people on the spectrum or with kids or relatives on the spectrum.
There would have been an outrage had they blamed Lanzas Aspergers on that whole incident.

The Red Pedant's post is Gold, we live in a society that champions itself in respecting the underdog but the media are still prone to making generalizations about groups like us. Whenever there is any kind of portrayal about us it comes off vitriolic and condescending not actually addressing people for their individuality. That Aspies are nonverbal, precocious savants, or a by-product of a nasty upbringing doesn't address peoples individual circumstances. Instead were regressing back to the days were people just put labels on others and called it a day. The media tries to boast about how far they've come along in respecting certain groups and ethnicities but they still perpetuate falsehoods about our community because its more convienient than actually trying to the necessary research to find out more about us.