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Cited by 65Disability Rights and RepresentationDigital Marketing and Social MediaMedia, Gender, and Advertising

Disability in influencer marketing: a complex model of disability representation

Open access
Södergren, Jonatan, Vallström, Niklas·2023·Journal of Marketing Management
DOI 10.1080/0267257x.2022.2144418
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Abstract

Disability is one of the largest minority groups, with a spending power of approximately £273bn every year. Consequently, many advertisers are now weaving people with disabilities into brand narratives. These narratives often evoke feelings of pity or portray people with disabilities as inspiring, solely or in part on the basis of their disability. Meanwhile, social media has emerged as a vessel for social change. Through the netnographic study of twelve influencers with visible impairments, complex personhood is proposed as a social ontology by which disabled lives are acknowledged in less confined terms. Our findings illustrate how social media influencers with disabilities may draw on narratives based on empowerment, playfulness, resistance, and responsibility to present themselves as neither victims nor superhuman agents but as complex human beings. We thus bring forward a complex model in market-mediated representations of disability, beyond the misrepresentational narratives based on pity and ‘inspiration porn’.

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Crossref · 10.1080/0267257x.2022.2144418

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  • People with disabilities are frequently absent or negatively stereotyped in media.

    “Yet, PwD are frequently absent or negatively stereotyped in media [34, 49, 103, 120] -portraying them as objects of pity, charity, or humor [49, 88], or as super-heroes overcoming insurmountable barriers [34, 100, 120].”

    From Engaging Communities Meaningfully in Defining Disability Representation for AI Image Generation (2026) · cites this paper as [103]

    The Conclusion says market-mediated representations often evoke pity or ‘inspiration porn’ and depict people with disabilities as victims or superhuman, supporting the negative-stereotyping part. It does not establish that people with disabilities are frequently absent from media; it says they are becoming more visible in advertising and mainstream media. (LLM, conf=0.83)

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  • Unlike other forms of marginalization (e.g., gender, race), disability representation has yet to be publicly debated or defined.

    “Unlike other forms of marginalization (e.g., gender, race), disability representation has yet to be publicly debated or defined (cf. evolving work by [103, 117]).”

    From Engaging Communities Meaningfully in Defining Disability Representation for AI Image Generation (2026) · cites this paper as [103]

    The Introduction says disability is difficult to define and calls for more nuance in its representation. It does not say disability representation has yet to be publicly debated, or compare that debate with gender or race. It also reviews existing models of disability representation, so the claim that representation has not been defined overstates the source. (LLM, conf=0.82)

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Flagged first, then by citations

3 of the 81 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Research works printed but not linked: 5

  1. Baker, S. M., & Mason, M. (2012). Toward a process theory of consumer vulnerability and resilience: Illuminating its transformative potential. In D. G. Mick, S. Pettigrew, C. Pechmann, & J. L. Ozanne (Eds.), Transformative consumer research for global welfare: Reviews and frontiers (pp. 571–592). Taylor & Francis/Routledge.
  2. Downey, H., & Catterall, M. (2006). Self-care, the body and identity: The non-ableist consumer perspective. In M. Craig Lees, T. Davis, and G. Gregory (Eds.), Asia-Pacific advances in consumer research (Vol. 7, pp. 127–132). Association for Consumer Research.
  3. Kozinets, R. V. (2020). Netnography: The essential guide to qualitative social media research (Third ed.). Sage.
  4. Williams-Nickleson, C. (2006). Balanced living through self-care. In J. Worrell & C. D. Goodheart (Eds.), Handbook of girls’ and womens’ psychological health: Gender and well-being across the life Span. Oxford University Press.
  5. Wong, A. (2020). Disability visibility: First-person stories from the twenty-first century. Penguin Random House.

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Authors
Södergren, J., & Vallström, N.
Affiliations
  • Stockholm University (SE)
  • Kristianstad University (SE)
Corresponding author
Södergren, Jonatan
ORCID
Venue
Journal of Marketing Management
Publisher
Informa UK Limited
Published
2022-11-28
Volume
39
Issue
11-12
Pages
1012-1042
ISSN
  • 0267-257X (ISSN-L)
  • 1472-1376
DOI
10.1080/0267257x.2022.2144418
OpenAlex
W4310224688
Cited by
65
References
81
Citations by year
2026: 14 · 2025: 32 · 2024: 14 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 1
FWCI
14.79
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Journal of Marketing Management (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • Bristol Research (University of Bristol) (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • KTH Publication Database DiVA (KTH Royal Institute of Technology) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • Explore Bristol Research (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Safety Research › Disability Rights and Representation
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Digital Marketing and Social Media
  • Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Media, Gender, and Advertising
Keywords
disability representation, influencer marketing, social media influencers, social ontology, empowerment narratives, brand storytelling

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