Dr. Sakis Pappous is currently in Lima, Peru delivering a series of talks to academic and non-academic audiences, expanding the reach of his research by distilling the findings of 10 years of research and expertise into the media coverage of the Paralympic Games.
For the first time ever, this summer Peru will be hosting the most significant sporting event of the American continent – the Pan American Games Lima 2019. Around 7,000 athletes will participate in 62 disciplines, many of which will be qualifying events for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
This week, Sakis met with the President of the National Paralympic Association of Peru who expressed her support by agreeing to write a preface for a media guide, and help with the dissemination of the guide, which will be distributed to all registered journalists covering the Lima 2019 Parapan American Games. Together with the National Paralympic Association of Peru and the help of the Badminton Pan Am (BPAC) organization, Dr Pappous is designing a series of training seminars aimed at helping Peruvian journalists to offer an inclusive and empowering portrayal of athletes with disabilities during the Lima 2019 Games. The results of this project will help create a strategy in terms of media communication that will increase the quality and quantity of the media portrayal of people with disabilities.
This work offers a clear example of a research impact case study, which has a global reach, benefitting the societal inclusion of disabled people by shaping media attitudes. Following his work during the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, and his current involvement with the Lima 2019 Parapan American Games, Dr Pappous has been invited to Tokyo, Japan to participate in a series of research seminars that will take place at the end of June 2019 to investigate the legacy impact of the forthcoming Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.
Click here for :
– A study that has recently being co-authored by School’s researchers Dr. Pappous and Dr. Kohe: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/2167479518808237
– And for more information on the 2016 Media Guide: https://www.kent.ac.uk/news/science/9847/new-guide-aims-to-change-perception-of-disability-at-Paralympics)