Background

Research questions

• How frequently mentally challenged people are represented in the social media platforms in Canada?
• What are the terms used for portraying the mentally challenged people in social media of Canada?

I would conduct the field study on the representation of mentally challenged people on social media in Canadian Association of Broadcasters. Permission would not be necessary, as my research is being sponsored by the association itself.

I would be observing the behavioural approach of the people during the lectures and sessions, which is scheduled to take place in the morning. My focus would be on the response of the mentally challenged people. In the evening, I would observe the involvement of the disabled people on the social networking. Their response to the newsfeed and posts would help me to deduce important fact about the psychology of the mentally disabled people.

Currently, I am pursuing a Masters course in Social, Cultural and Media Studies from University of Fraser Valley. In my free time, I surf social networking sites to upgrade my knowledge about different cultures. Once I was reading a post on impact of religion on freedom and liberty. One of my friends was mentally challenged, so he commented without understanding the depth of the issue. This comment adversely affected the individual sentiments of a friend, who belonged to a different religion. Therefore, it resulted in religious conflict, which took the form of quarrel. This issue was a touching one for me, as it acted as interplay with the personality of the mentally disabled people.

Degradation of culture and religious values was the major reason for which I wanted to conduct research especially on the portrayal of the mentally disabled people. Admission into the course proved beneficial for me in terms of upgrading knowledge horizons on the character of the mentally disabled people. I have learnt that mentally disabled people need specially trained experts for providing the necessary care and support. Therefore, I need to take training on handling the mentally disabled people. This is in terms of exposing rational approach in using them as the samples of research.

Description of the field site

The field site chosen for the research is Canadian Association of Broadcasters. Located in Ottawa, the broadcasting association airs commercial issues in radio and television. The Broadcasting Association functions under the supervision of Canadian Broadcast Standards Council. I think conducting the research on the representation of mentally challenged people on social media would be a productive one in this site. Psychology experts would be hired for briefing the people on the representation of the disabled people on social networking sites. Along with this, specially trained volunteers would be hired for making the disabled people understand the programs.

Objectives

Activities	Time taken to complete	Persons responsible	Anticipated outcomes
Visiting the field site	2 days	Researchers and supervisors	Assessment of the feasibility of proposed data collection method
Receiving grants from higher officials	3 days	Researchers	Averting the illegal instances
Sessions	5 days	Volunteers and researchers	Enhancing the awareness of the mentally challenged people about the vastness of social media
Training by experts	6 days	Trainers	Making the mentally challenged people acquainted with the dynamics of social media
Quizzes	1 day	Volunteers	Observing the capacity of the mentally challenged people to intake the lectures and respond
Health check up	2 days	Doctors and researchers	Gaining an insight into the health needs of the mentally challenged people during the data collection process
Session on website involvement	3 days	Psychology and IT experts	Enhancing the awareness of the mentally challenged people about cyber crimes
Evaluation	5 days	Researchers	Assessment of the drawbacks, which needs to be modified for exposing better care approach towards the mentally challenged people

Table 1: Checklist for anticipated observations in the field study

(Source: Created by the researcher)

Social media is one of the biggest platforms, resulting in the assemblage of people from different socio-cultural background. In most of the cases, it is seen that commercialization exposes the disability of the people. This is a challenge in their existence. Conducting the field study in the morning proved beneficial for me in terms of gaining an insight into the opinions of the mentally challenged people. In the evening, I observed the response of the mentally challenged people on the social networking sites. This observation helped me in deducing relevant results about the care and support of mentally challenged people.

Frequency in representing the mentally challenged people reflects the approach towards caring and supporting these people in fulfilling their needs, demands and requirements. This frequency is assistance in terms of excavating the approach towards the wellbeing of this people. Language used for describing the mentally challenged people is more important as compared to the frequency in their representation. This is because the words used for describing the mentally people enhances the awareness of the audience about their representation. Using provocative words for representation would act as mocking and taunt. Uploading provocative words for describing the mentally challenged people uncovers the mask of their privacy. This is a challenge in terms of their personality.

Social media has revolutionized the business in the current context. This is through the means of transmitting the information to large number of audience. Mostly it is seen that the companies target the influential people. Consistent approach in this direction deprives the mentally disables people from fulfilling their specific needs, demands and requirements.

According to me, ethical considerations would be important in terms of ensuring the wellbeing of the mentally disabled people. Therefore, prior to the process of sampling technique, I need to take the permission from the hospitals and care homes. Possession of written approvals and grants would act assistance in terms of averting the illegal instances. Counselling, discussion and open forums would help me in delving deeper into the mindset of the mentally disabled people. I feel assuring the mentally challenged people are vital in terms of averting the instances of commercializing their responses. Here, I feel that courses on effective handling of the disabled people on broader platforms, is essential.

Conclusion

Social media is an effective medium for reaching to large number of audience. However, rationality is needed in terms of portraying the people, especially the disabled ones. Research in this subject is an effective step in terms of projecting ethical approach. This approach, in turn, would be effective for ensuring the wellbeing of the disabled people. 

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