Tweeting Autism
A Framing Analysis of Twitter Conversations on Autism in Indonesia
Hersinta
1
1
Dept of Mass Communication, The London School of Public Relations, STIKOM LSPR, Jakarta, Indonesia.
Keywords: autism, disability, Twitter, framing, content analysis
Abstract: This paper is intended to explore the way in which Indonesian Twitter users’ frame autism. Recent studies
show that the micro blogging platform has the ability for its users - either groups or individuals - to use
frames to bring attention to specific issues. By mapping the conversations about autism on Twitter for a six
month period (November 2017 - January 2018 and March - May 2018), the intended findings will be
expected to give further insights into (1) what are the main issues in relation to autism discussed on Twitter;
(2) how Twitter users’ frame the issue of autism and (3) how autistic people are portrayed on Twitter. Using
DiscoverText (a text and social data analytics software) and Twitter API search, tweets were generated
using certain keywords related with autism in the Indonesian languages, including “autism,” “autistic,”
“special needs” and “neurodiversity.” The analysis stage was done by applying the traditional and
progressive models of disability developed by Clogston (1994) as a framework to investigate the dominant
frames in Twitter conversations about autism in Indonesia. The results indicate that the frame of
understanding autism on Twitter is still dominated by traditional perspectives, which focus more on the
disabled individual’s differences from others in society. On the other hand, the minority voice from autistic
people themselves also appears on Twitter, representing the progressive perspective in viewing autism as a
part of human differences.
1 INTRODUCTION
The topic of autism is considered to be relatively
new in Indonesia, both as a new phenomenon offline
and as an online presence. With the public history of
autism in this country only beginning in the late
1990s, there is still a limited amount of academic
research about autism available in Indonesia
(Tucker, 2013). Due to the lack of access to media
and health information, a large percentage of
Indonesians - mostly those who live in small cities
and rural areas - still have little understanding of
autism (or other disabilities) (Riany, Cuskelly, &
Meredith, 2016). Autism, clinically known as
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), is a lifelong
neurological (brain) condition which affects three
areas in the early years of development, including
language, socialization, and behavior (Blank and
Kitta, 2015, Laurelut, 2016, Reilly, 2013).
In Indonesia, although there is still no exact data
on the rate of autism prevalence, in 2009, the
Ministry of Health stated that one in every 150
children in Indonesia is born with autism and that
the number of children diagnosed with the disorder
is continuing to increase (Mardiyati, 2011).
Evidently, between 1997-1999, parents of autistic
children initiated efforts to bring autism into public
awareness in Indonesia, especially in urban areas,
thus making the subject more familiar to the public
by inaugurating public discussion and providing
group support and information through online group
discussions via mailing lists (Tucker, 2013). Until
now (up to the time, as this paper was written in
2018), the parents’ movements have still been going
strong, both offline and online (particularly through
social media platforms such as Facebook and
Twitter).
Interestingly, starting in 2005, the presence of
autistic individuals in Indonesia has become more
visible. One of them is Oscar Dompas, who
published his autobiography - the first ‘autie-
biography’ in Indonesia. In 2013, a famous
Indonesian pianist and music composer, Ananda
Sukarlan, described himself for the first time as
being an Aspie and as having Tourette’s syndrome,
when he shared his experience of being a “different”
142
Hersinta, .
Tweeting Autism.
DOI: 10.5220/0008818101420152
In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Contemporary Social and Political Affairs (ICoCSPA 2018), pages 142-152
ISBN: 978-989-758-393-3
Copyright
c
2019 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved
person through a video on YouTube. In the same
year, an account on behalf of Pemuda Autisme
(Autism Youth) emerged using Twitter and a blog to
educate people about autism, to advocate on behalf
of autistics, and to assist them in building a
community. This resonates with some of the
previous studies which point out that the use of the
internet as a communication medium has become
popular globally among autistic people, with many
finding it a more comfortable medium in which to
communicate, as it provides a more controllable
situation (Penny and Standen, 2009, Burke et al.,
2010).
Online communication platforms, such as blogs
and social media, were also acknowledged for
providing the opportunities to include information
and individual viewpoint sharing (Hermida, 2010;
Holton et. al, 2014). In contrast, in a study of the
newspaper coverage of autism in the United States
and the United Kingdom over a period of 15 years, it
was found that two-thirds of the news coverage used
stigmatizing cues, such as addressing labeling,
psychiatric symptoms, social skill deficits and
physical appearance (Holton et al., 2014).
Consequently, mainstream media could create “a
threatening space” for autism, as autism was heavily
depicted in loss frames- focusing more on the
negative outcomes (for example, facing a lack of
resources and financial struggles related to covering
family stories with autistic children) (Holton et al.,
2014). That said, online media platforms can include
more individual points of view when looking at
autism, including from people who are related to
autistic people or autistic people themselves. This is
also in accordance with the objective of this study -
to explore more into the individual point of view of
autism and autistic people in Indonesia through the
micro blogging platform of Twitter.
2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
2.1 The Traditional and Progressive
Models of Disability
The development of disability studies as an
academic area of study emerged in the 1970s and
gained more acknowledgment during the 1990s in
Anglo-American traditions, particularly in countries
such as Britain and the United States (Shakespeare,
1998). In the 1980s, the social model of disability
was getting more acknowledgment, although the
roots of this approach are dated earlier to the late
1940s and 1970s (Barnes in Shakespeare, 1998).
Whereas the medical model of disability views the
experience of disability in the context of the medical
implications that it is supposed to have, the social
model of disability interprets disability as a construct
imposed by contemporary social organizations or
external powers (e.g., medical, legal and
governmental systems) (Shakespeare, 1998;
Reaume, 2014).
According to Barnes (1998), the social model of
disability- which has been previously proposed in
the works of British writers - differentiates between
disability and impairment (Shakespeare, 1998; Ellis
and Kent, 2011). The model sees the difference
between impairment – which is defined as a
practical restriction that concerns the biological -
and disability, as a social disadvantage or restriction,
which is a difference promoted by society without
considering impairments (Reaume, 2014;
Shakespeare, 1998).
In the area of news coverage on disability issues,
Clogston (1994) states there to be two categories of
disability coverage: (1) the traditional models which
largely based on the medical model of disability,
focusing on the disabled individual’s differences
from others in society and (2) the progressive model
which based on the social model, focusing more on
how society deals with a population that includes
those with various disabilities (Nelson, 1994).
Clogston’s traditional models depict disabled people
as a “group of poor, powerless unfortunates who
depend on society for physical and economic
assistance” (Nelson, 1994). Example words found in
a news article that applied the traditional model
include “people suffering from” or “confined to a
wheelchair.” Some of the issues that these models
portray could be in the form of medical treatment
and institutionalization, government and private
support programs, charity telethons and the
victimization of disabled persons. A previous study
on disability news coverage by Clogston in 1991
indicated a major amount (60% of newspaper
coverage) of issues based on the traditional models
(Nelson, 1994). The traditional model was
categorized into three frames by Clogston (1994,
p.47):
Medical Model: This model emphasizes the
individual’s physical disability as an illness.
The individual is portrayed as dependent on
health professionals for a cure or maintenance.
Also included in this model are stories that
focus on the physical aspects of an
individual’s disability.
Supercrip Model: This model is focused on
the individuals because of the physical
Tweeting Autism
143
characteristics of their disability, portrayed
either as ‘superhuman’ or ‘amazing’ because
they function ‘normally’ in spite of their
disabilities.
Social Pathology or Economic Model:
Disabled people are portrayed as
disadvantaged clients who look to the state or
society for economic support, which is
considered to be a gift and not a right. The
individuals are portrayed as the passive
recipients of government or private economic
support.
On the other hand, the progressive models
largely portray disabled people as more inclusive.
For example, a disabled person is viewed as part of a
minority group demanding equal rights and full
participation in society (Nelson, 1994). From the
same study by Clogston (1991) concerning US
newspaper coverage, 40% of the coverage portrayed
progressive issues, such as discrimination, access
issues, integrated education, employment issues and
portraying the disabled person as a consumer
(Nelson, 1994). Moreover, Clogston classified the
progressive perspective into two frames (p. 47,
1994):
Minority/Civil Rights Model: disabled people
are shown as a member of a minority group
dealing with legitimate political grievances,
who are usually involved in disability rights
and political activities, actively demanding
political change.
Cultural Pluralism Model: The disabled
person is considered to be a multifaceted
individual whose disability is just one aspect
of many. No undue attention is paid to the
disability. The individual is portrayed as are
others without disabilities.
Both of these models (the traditional and
progressive) will be used for further analysis in this
paper, in order to investigate further which frame is
frequently used when discussing autism issues in
Indonesia.
2.2 Media Framing on Autism
Framing, according to Entman, is “the process of
culling a few elements of perceived reality and
assembling a narrative that highlights connections
among them to promote a particular interpretation”
(Entman, 2007). Furthermore, framing in news
content generally has four basic functions: to define
problems, to identify causes, to convey a moral
judgment and to suggest remedies or improvements
(Entman, 2004). Media frames can also be
categorized as either generic or issue-specific frames
(Ben, 2013). While the first one refers more to broad
and structural themes such as “conflict, human
interest, economic impact, responsibility and
morality” (Semetko & Valkenburg, 2000 in Ben,
2013), the second category is more subjective (Ben,
2013). For example, in the first category,
Muhammad and Yang’s (2017) findings point out
that many US publications highlight the economical
impact of autism, which supports or maintains the
medical model by viewing autism through the
consequences of the economical cost factor imposed
on the family.
Some previous studies on media framing
(newspaper and television) on autism in countries
such as the US, the UK, Australia and China indicate
some tendency for there to be biases when depicting
autism. Both media in Western and Eastern
countries tend to focus on children in their coverage,
even though autism is a lifelong developmental
disability (Dodd, 2005; Bie and Tang, 2014).
In health framing issues, there are two
approaches that are commonly applied in the study
of mental disability coverage. A study on
stigmatization and autism news framing by Holton et
al (2014) used the gain/loss frames to explore the
health benefits or rewards and the risk of
disadvantages. It also applied episodic/thematic
frames in order to look at the responsibility related
to the autism issue at the individual and societal
level (Holton, Farrell & Fudge, 2014).
Pertaining to the autism issue, from previous
studies by Davidson & Henderson (2010) and Gray
(2002), stigma is still found largely in the
conversations surrounding the issue (Tang & Bie,
2016). Furthermore, cultural factors play an
important part in reflecting health-related stigmas in
developing countries (Weiss et al., 2006; Muhamad
and Yang, 2017). For example, in China, it was
found that there are two factors which might
contribute to heightening the public’s low awareness
of autism and thus decreasing the discrimination
against them (Tang & Bie, 2016). The first one is the
scarcity of resources and facilities for autistic
children in China, and the second one is “the cultural
pressure to have a normal child” (Hua & Yang,
2013; McCabe, 2007; Tang & Bie, 2016). Prior to
the study, there were no health education programs
in China that intended to reduce the stigma of autism
(Tang & Bie, 2016).
Among the various topics related to the autism
issue in the media, the vaccine issue is considered to
ICoCSPA 2018 - International Conference on Contemporary Social and Political Affairs
144
be important when looking at the news coverage of
the issue, as it caused great controversy after a
publication in the British medical journal, The
Lancet, “suggested a possible link between autism
and the MMR vaccine” (McKeever, 2013; Kang-Yi
et al., 2013). The public controversy brought great
attention from the news media, such as in the US,
where autism - according to the Pew Research
Center, 2008 - was included as one of the top five
disorders/diseases in health news coverage
(McKeever, 2012). Celebrities are also regarded as
having a prominent role in disseminating
information about autism, whether as patients or as
campaign supporters (Kang-Yi et al., 2013).
In news framing, there are two approaches to
analyzing the content; inductive or deductive
(Gamson, 1992 in Muhammad & Yang, 2017). The
“inductive approach involves examining stories with
an open view and allowing for frames to emerge”
(Gamson, 1992), whereas a deductive approach
involves analyzing the content with predefined
frames to verify the presence or absence of certain
frames” (Muhamad and Yang, 2017). The latter
approach will be applied in this study, as the aim of
this study is to explore more on how autism is
portrayed in Indonesia from the perspectives of
autistic and non-autistic people who use Twitter.
The predefined frames used in this study were
constructed from the studies above on news framing
on autism, in order to create the categories regarding
the age groups and type of issues that Twitter users
were focusing on when talking about autism.
2.3 Framing on Twitter
Meraz and Papacharissi’s study on networked
framing and gatekeeping on Twitter in 2011,
focusing on the Egyptian uprisings case, showed that
the Twitter platform has the ability for its users -
either groups or individuals - to use frames to bring
attention to specific issues (Moody-Ramirez & Cole,
2018). Twitter also has some advantages related to
its use as a news and storytelling platform, as it
creates an opportunity for “collaborative filtering
and the curating of news” (Schonfield, 2010; Meraz
& Papacharissi, 2013). The addressivity and
conversational markers known as “retweet” (@RT),
“hashtags,” replies or mentions on Twitter could be
used to maintain interactivity and to build
interpersonal conversations as well as social
awareness streams, thus “giving a voice to
marginalized issues and publics” (Meraz and
Papacharissi, 2013).
Communication platforms such as blogs and
social media are opening up spaces for information
sharing and providing arenas where individual
viewpoints can be shared (Hermida, 2013; Holton et
al., 2014). Furthermore, Holton et.al (2014)
suggested that the social media platform could
provide an arena for discussing topics and issues
beyond the mainstream voices and stigmas which
largely found in the news media’s coverage.
According to the same study, the journalist did not
include autistic points of view in the news media.
Consequently, to improve the news coverage of
mental disabilities, news producers are suggested to
take note of online media platforms for listening to
other voices and acknowledging the audience’s
expectations of the news (Holton et al., 2014). This
leads to the significance of this paper - to explore
more on how autism issues are discussed and how
autistic people are portrayed by the audience’s
(Twitter users) point of views.
Regarding the Indonesian context of social media
use, it could be stated that Indonesian internet users
have been dubbed as the Twitter’s early adopters
and the most prolific Twitter users (Carley et al.,
2016). Previously, Indonesia has been ranked as “the
country with the highest level of Twitter
penetration” in 2010 according to the ComScore
report. It was the fifth country with the largest
number of Twitter users in the world in 2012, with
29.4 million users (Semiocast, 2012; Carley et.al,
2016). By 2013, Indonesia was acknowledged as the
“Twitter nation” by CNN and ranked as the fifth
most tweeting country a year later (Lim, 2013;
Carley et al., 2016).
3 RESEARCH PROBLEMS
Prior to the data analysis, a codebook was
constructed to be used as guidance or as a
framework when analyzing the tweets used to
answer the following questions:
What are the main issues of autism discussed
on Indonesian Twitter?
How do Indonesian Twitter users’ frame the
issues of autism?
How are autistic people portrayed on
Indonesian Twitter?
Each tweet collected will be coded and
categorized into one of two categories: (1) the
demographics (age group) of autistics and (2) the
categories of autism issues as shown in Table 1. This
Tweeting Autism
145
framework was developed from previous studies
about news framing on autism (newspaper and
television news framing) and also studies about
online content analysis (health and social issues in
social networking platforms). The analysis will
investigate the dominant frames - using the
traditional and progressive model developed by
Clogston (1994) – in order to determine how autistic
people are portrayed in online conversations, and to
explore further what issues that people most talk
about related to autism on Twitter.
Table 1: Content Analysis Item Descriptions
Categories
Sub-categories and Descriptions
Age group
Defined as the representations of autistic
profiles (age group) in the tweets or
content of the tweets (pictures,
article/news) (adult, teen, children)
Issues
framing
Defined as what issues for the specific
topic on autism presented in social
media, including:
1. Infrastructure;
2. Medical related issues and science
(i.e., scientific advancements in
autism-related research and contents
about autism risks, diagnosis, causes,
and treatments);
3. Charity;
4. Personal or family story;
5. Celebrity story;
6. Social and legal case;
7. Policy;
8. Art and cultural activities (art, films,
and fiction about autism or
cultural/artistic/athletic achievements
of autistic people);
9. Politics or political commentary; and
10. Misuse of the word “autism” (i.e.,
erroneous use of the term autism to
refer to introverted personalities or
unsocial behaviors).
(Jones and Harwood, 2009, Bie and
Tang, 2014, Tang and Bie, 2015, Kang,
2013)
4 METHODS
For this stage of the data collection, certain
keywords related to autism in the Indonesian
language were used, including “autism,” “autistic,”
and “neurodiversity”, in order to search for tweets in
the period of the first three months (1st November
2017- 31st January 2018). The keywords “autism”
and “autistic” are common terms when talking about
autism, while “neurodiversity” is a specific term
which has been drawn out of the references and
academic literature on the autism movement through
the internet. Using DiscoverText, a text and social
data analytics software that enables users to schedule
messages from Twitter, and also by using a Twitter
keyword search application programming interface
(API), tweets were collected during the three months
period. Tweets that were irrelevant (not related to
autism issues or not in the Indonesian context) were
omitted to obtain an appropriate and clean dataset
for analysis. The filtering process was done
manually to exclude tweets that do not relate to
Indonesia (e.g. when using the keywords, the
software will generate data from countries that use
the same terms or that are in a similar language, such
as the Dutch and Malaysian languages). At the end
of the first period, the result was not significant
regarding the amount - only 60 tweets related to
autism in the Indonesian context.
Considering the results above, another search for
the second period was conducted, during 1st March
– 31st May 2018. This period was chosen regarding
international Autism Awareness Month in April.
Moreover, from further observations in March, there
are many tweets appear containing different terms
that address autism, namely “special needs.” This
term was then added later on in the data collection
process in the remaining months of the second
period. This resulted in a larger amount of tweets (N
= 2541) but the filtering process was done further in
order to eliminate the content that did not relate to
autism and duplicated items. The results can be seen
in Table 2 after implementing the filtering and de-
duplicating process in order to get a clean dataset.
5 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS
5.1 Most Prominent Issues: Cultural,
Charity, Medical and
Infrastructure
As seen in Table 3, the most prominent main issues
that frequently appear on Twitter are art and cultural,
charity-related, medical, science-based and
infrastructure. For each category, five tweets were
selected (using the Top Meta Explorer feature in
DiscoverText) based on the most retweeted and
favorited count value, in order to be analyzed
further.
ICoCSPA 2018 - International Conference on Contemporary Social and Political Affairs
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Table 2: Frequency of Issues in Autism-related Tweets
No
Issues
Count
Percentage
%
1
Art and cultural
95
19
2
Charity
82
16
3
Medical and science
76
15
4
Infrastructure
68
14
5
Social and legal cases
44
9
6
Political commentary
32
6
7
Personal/family story
31
6
8
Misusing the term
15
3
9
Celebrity
8
1.6
10
Policy
2
0.4
The first leading category is related to arts and
cultural events held in Indonesia to celebrate Autism
Awareness Month. As presented in Table 3, it could
be identified that some descriptions of autistic
people are as an individual who has special or
outstanding talents and skills (indicated by using the
words “amazing” and “extraordinary”) despite being
valued as a person with deficit skills or impairments.
On the contrary, the word “extraordinary” is also
used in a different context – in order to praise the
efforts of the community in providing space for
autistic students to express themselves.
Tweets in this category also contain information
about popular movies and television seasons that
portray autistic characters such as Atypical (TV
series), The Good Doctor (TV series) and Please
Stand By (movie). This form of popular culture is
seen of as a useful reference in order to understand
autistic individuals as people who have a different
way of thinking.
Table 3: Tweets on Art and Cultural Frame
No
1
2
3
4
5
The second prominent category, the charity
frame, contains information related to charitable
donations and community events in support of
autistic individuals and organizations related to
autism (Tang and Bie, 2015). This frame frequently
appears on Twitter, and is still related to various
events that are a part of Autism Awareness month
celebration. In the tweets that fit in the charity
frame, most of them depict the autistic person as
individuals that need to be understood, along with
the help that is to charity, as seen in the examples
(see Table 4). This includes the tweet from the
President of Indonesia Joko Widodo (Figure 1), as
he made a statement on Twitter to commemorate
Autism Awareness month: “We need to care more
about our brothers, sisters and our children who
have autism. They possess unique personalities that
we need to understand and care about. We support
them to grow and to have great achievements.
Happy Autism Awareness Day, April 2nd, 2018 –
Jkw”. This tweet received a large number of likes,
retweets, and replies.
Table 4: Tweets on Charity Frame
No
1
2
Autism is not a barrier for people with autism to
work. Let's love, understand and empower
women and girls with autism. Happy World
Autism Awareness Day!
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147
3
4
5
Interestingly, looking from the sample above, we
could see different attention and degree of
understanding autism. Some messages are focusing
on giving supports and opportunities for children,
women, and girls with autism, while others see
autism as people with a different way of thinking.
For example, in a tweet to commemorate Autism
Awareness Day posted by @AutismIndonesia (The
Autism Foundation of Indonesia, or known as YAI),
the non-profit organization posted a picture of a
woman with autism, using the term “person with
autism” instead of “special needs person.” However,
a tweet from a private hospital (tweet no. 2 in Table
4) is showing a picture of a child with Down
Syndrome as an illustration of its tweet supporting
women and girls with autism. Another tweet from an
account behalf of @makaraitv (a television station
owned by University of Indonesia, the oldest state
university in Indonesia) quoted Temple Grandin to
emphasize that people with autism have a different
way of thinking (tweet no. 3 in Table 4). This could
be seen as a different degree in understanding on
autism among Twitter users in Indonesia.
The third prominent category- the medical and
science- largely includes tweet about assessment,
intervention, therapies, remedies, and news related
to research on science, technological support and
medical inventions related to autism. The example
tweets in this category emphasizes issues about
symptoms, the prevalence of autistic person in
Indonesia, and also certain traits which often seen as
behavior problems.
Another interesting finding that appears in this
category is a tweet that perceives autism as a
disorder that needs to be cured ("AUTISM IS
CURABLE" Yes. Autism can be cured. That's not my
word. That's Kak Kresno's word, fellows ...
http://fb.me/2ZzeiRL61 ) The tweet was quoting a
local psychiatrist -who once wrote a book titled
“Autism is Curable”-
(https://www.amazon.com/Autism-Curable-
Indonesian-Kresno-Mulyadi/dp/6020229319)
despite the fact that autism is “a lifelong disability of
biological origin” (Dodd, 2005).
Infrastructure frame is the fourth most prominent
issue being discussed on Twitter. Most of the tweets
talk about the lack of health and education facilities
for children and people with autism. The
conversations in this category also attribute the
responsibilities of providing the infrastructure to the
government.
5.2 Twitter Users Frame of Autism
From the findings, it could be concluded that there
are different views when it comes to understanding
autism. Most of the tweets largely perceive autism as
a neurological and developmental disorder that can
be detected from an early age. The conversations
around autism are also talking largely about
treatments and offering problem-solving strategies
such as interventions and therapy programs. This
resonates with the previous study by Satvikadewi
(2014) about the discourse on autism via Indonesian
Twitter, which finds out that the knowledge about
autism constructed on Twitter refers to autism as a
disorder, disease or illness. This was indicated
through a series of tweets using certain medical-
related terms, such as “autistic sufferers,” “DSM V
(Diagnostic and Statistical Manual)” “autism
disease” etc - that represent the meaning that autism
is a condition that shows the symptoms of an illness
(Satvikadewi, 2014).
However, apart from the fact that autism is a
developmental disorder which begins in childhood
and that has a tendency to persist to adulthood
(WHO, 2013), autism is still perceived by some
ICoCSPA 2018 - International Conference on Contemporary Social and Political Affairs
148
Twitter users as being a disease and illness that is to
be cured and that should be prevented. Moreover,
from the findings, it can be seen that there is another
perspective when looking at autism - as a different
condition, and as a unique way of thinking.
Another interesting finding is that Twitter users
exert the religion aspect in relation to understanding
autism. Some tweets cite and share stories and
interviews from the Ulema (Muslim scholar or
expert who is recognized as having specialist
knowledge of Islamic sacred law and theology)
about how to deal with autism and how to handle
autistic children. Religion has turned out to be one
of the frames used by Twitter users to understand the
meaning of dealing with and having a family
member with autism.
Moreover, having autistic children is viewed as
both a test and a gift from God, as one of the tweets
states: According to Mrs. Unun, children with
special needs are a pious partner for parents.
However, these special children are a gift from God
Almighty. This resonates with the previous findings
about parents of autistic children in Indonesia and
also in the US (from a Muslim and South Asian
background). These parents regard their children as
gifts from Allah (means God in Islam) and feel
blessed that God has chosen them to be special
parents (Jegatheesan et al., 2010; Hersinta, 2012). In
this case, religion acts as the primary frame that
helps the parents to understand the meaning of
having a child with autism (Hersinta, 2012;
Jegatheesan et al., 2010).
5.3 The Portrayal of Autistic Person
From the majority of the tweets, it was found that
children are largely represented (65%) while other
age groups (adult and teen) only represented in
smaller numbers as shown in the chart (Figure 2).
The previous study on autism representations in
British and Chinese newspapers also found similar
evidence; portraying autism as a condition that
primarily affects children (Huws and Jones, 2011;
Tang and Bie, 2015). This over-representation of
autistic children has also been presented in the US,
where children’s issues and stories were among the
top issues in the television news coverage (Kang,
2013). This biased portrayal of autism could lead to
the tendency to “discuss autism as a condition that
only affects infants and children” (Tang and Bie,
2015).
In addition, the cloud explorer feature in
DiscoverText was used to reveal the most popular
keywords being tweeted, in order to search for the
most frequent terms that were used when addressing
autism and people with autism. It was found that
“special needs” and “special needs children”
(“berkebutuhan khusus” and “anak berkebutuhan
khusus” in Indonesian language) are the most
frequent terms used when tweeting about autism-
related issues and when addressing people/children
with autism. Although the term “special needs” is
considered to be a disability euphemism and not a
legal term in US law (Gernsbacher et al., 2016), in
Indonesia it can be found largely in the daily context
to address people and children with disabilities,
including autistic people and children. This might
relate to the fact that the term “special needs” is still
used in the government’s legal documents, such as
in the Circular Letter of Directorate General of
Primary and Secondary Education, Year 2003 on
inclusive education (2003).
Historically, the concept of disability in
Indonesia is largely focused on a person with
functional impairments. According to the Report on
Persons with Disability in Indonesia (p.3; 2014),
disabled people are labeled with the prefix ‘ber-,
‘which means ‘has’ or ‘to own’ disability (ies) (“ber-
kebutuhan khusus” means having special needs),
including when referring to a person or child with
autism. However, since the enactment of Law No. 4
of 1997 on Persons with Disability (PWD) in
Indonesia, the term PWD is considered to be a legal
terminology (Adioetomo et al., 2014).
Moreover, autistic people are still largely
described as a victim or as a victimized group, and
they are also seen of as a part of a vulnerable group -
discriminated and bullied against - in some tweets.
As one tweet stated, “Be patient, okay? His reply
was horrifying. The majority of Indonesian people
are still discriminative. People with autism and
other neurodevelopmental disorders are also
discriminated against. Bullying means
discrimination against the weak. In this country for
sure, people's thoughts should be in a mainstream
way.”
One particular case that gained special attention
on Twitter happened during the ‘Walk for Autism’
in Jakarta. There was a political tension conflict
related to the upcoming 2019 presidential election.
In the event, a group of autistic people was reported
as being ‘victimized’ and were mocked by another
group (opposed to the current president). The
autistic people were being scoffed at for carrying a
poster quoting the President of Indonesia Joko
Widodo (from his tweet about supporting autistic
people) during the walk event (Wicaksono, 2018).
This incident incited a large response from Twitter
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users, particularly from the parents of autistic
children and from groups from both opponents.
Other tweets also appear to include stereotyping
and stigma when addressing autistic people. Being
autistic is perceived as the person having bad
behavior, possessing a weird attitude or being
categorized as a mad person. One of the tweets
stated: Have you ever had a friend like mine? He has
a normal physical condition, but his brain is a bit,
yeah... is he included in the special needs category?
My classmates even looked down on him for
stealing.” Another tweet that was shared was about a
news article that stated: #infojabar Some
Indonesians Still Consider People with Autism to be
Similar to Mad People. However, this is not
surprising, considering the fact that in Indonesia’s
2009 National Socioeconomic Survey, the listed
category of disabilities were limited to sensory,
physical and mental disabilities without properly
representing the prevalence of disability in the
mental, emotional and intellectual domains
(particularly autism, ADHD, and other intellectual
disabilities) (Irwanto et al., 2010).
Another portrayal of autistic people found in
Twitter is related to the ‘supercrip’ model, referring
to them as people who have extraordinary skills or
who are ‘savants’ despite their disabilities. Savant
Syndrome was popularized by the fictional character
in the movie “Rain Man”, who had an outstanding
cognitive skill that was above the population norm.
This presented in some tweets, including the below
tweet from a private hospital’s Twitter account:
Autism Savant or Savant Syndrome: This type of
child has an extraordinary level of intelligence. Let’s
recognize the characteristics & interesting facts
about Autistic Savants at http://bit.ly/autis-savant.
Another tweet quoted a statement from Risma,
the Mayor of Surabaya city, when she opened up a
new therapy centre for autistic children: During the
Opening Ceremony, Risma Motivates Special Needs
Children to be Like Einstein. The Mayor shared her
expectation that autistic children could have
extraordinary achievements like the famous
scientist, Albert Einstein. These two findings are
related to the previous study by Draaisma (2009),
which found out that many fictional autistic
characters are represented as savants with a special
talent, although savantism is rare among autistic
people (Draaisma, 2009).
On the contrary, there is also the portrayal of
autistics people as a “typical” person who has
unsocial behavior, as stated in one tweet: I saw a
friend who behaved like an autistic and an idiotic
person. Every day, my timeline is full of his
garbage. However, this kind of misuse of the word
‘autism’ and ‘autistic’ has been criticized largely by
Twitter users, who share messages to the public as a
part of an autism awareness campaign. Using the
word autism as a joke and as negative labeling is
wrong.
6 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
Based on the Clogston’s traditional and progressive
models of disability, it can be concluded that all
three traditional models - medical, supercrip and
social pathology - are the dominant frame when
looking at how autism and autistic people are
portrayed on Twitter. The medical model is
presented heavily in the medical and science frames
by addressing issues related to symptoms,
treatments, early detection and dependencies among
the health professionals. The art and cultural frame
puts an emphasis on describing autistic people as
‘supercrip’ by focusing on their extraordinary talents
and amazing performance in art exhibitions and
cultural shows, in spite of their autistic condition.
The social pathology or economic model appears
largely in tweets in the charity and infrastructure
frames, which focus on the autistic person as an
individual with special needs who constantly needs
economic support from the government and from
their families. This model is also presented strongly
in the personal and family story frame by focusing
on the struggling story of parents and other family
members in dealing with autism and how they
provide economic support for their children.
In this study, the autistic person is still viewed
largely within the medical and economic model,
including as an object of charity. It is worth noting
the fact that Indonesia has ratified the United
Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with
Disabilities (UNCRPD) on 30 March 2007
(Adioetomo et al., 2014). By ratifying the UNCRPD,
it means that a person with disabilities, including
autistics, should be viewed as “people who have a
right to live in a society that does not erect barriers
to their participation based on their functional
status” (Adioetomo et al., 2014). Moreover, the
ratification was strengthened through the enactment
of Law No. 19 concerning the Ratification of the
UNCRPD, which means that the new law reaffirmed
that Indonesia is committed to respecting,
protecting, and meeting the rights of PWDs
(Adioetomo et al., 2014; p.3). By enacting the Law,
the Indonesian government has already made a
strong commitment to improving the well-being of
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people with disabilities, by claiming equal rights and
opportunities for PWDs —including and especially
children with disabilities — in all aspects of life
(Adioetomo et al., 2014; p.3). However, the
enforcement of the Law still remains a challenge, as
Indonesia still needs to develop reliable data on
disability, as currently the existing data is still
fragmented and mainly reflects social welfare
conditions related to poverty (Adioetomo et al.,
2014; Irwanto et al., 2010)
Secondly, the progressive model, although it was
only presented in a small number of tweets, should
be pointed out as representing the minority voice:
the autistic people themselves. Previous studies of
news framing on autism revealed that the
mainstream media tends to sensationalize and
stigmatize autism (Holton et al., 2014; Tang and Bie,
2015). The present study found that the news media
still has a large influence on Twitter, as many of the
tweets are in the form of news sharing. However, the
minority group can utilize the micro blogging
platform as an arena to provide a different discourse
compared to that of the news media. Autistic people
use Twitter to share stories and views from firsthand
experience in the hope that this kind of voice could
promote a fuller understanding of the concept of
autism.
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