Media Framing of the International Paralympic Committee’s WeThe15 Disability Inclusion Campaign During Tokyo 2020 and Beijing 2022: A Comparative Analysis

During the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, the International Paralympic Committee launched a global campaign called WeThe15 to draw attention to the 15% of the global population with a disability with the hopes it would become the largest human rights movement in history. Utilizing framing theory, this study sought to understand how the mass media framed WeThe15 in its coverage during the Tokyo 2020 Games and the subsequent Paralympic Games, Beijing 2022, and to determine if any differences existed between the two Games. Using qualitative document analysis, we examined English-language articles about WeThe15 during both Games. There were stark differences in the amount of coverage, with our search uncovering 177 articles from 22 countries during Tokyo 2020, and only 10 articles from six countries during Beijing 2022. Three broad frames and four overarching themes were used to contextualize the WeThe15 campaign during the Tokyo Games: basic campaign information, partners leveraging the campaign, athlete narratives, and amplifying disability visibility. Basic campaign information was identified in coverage from the Beijing 2022 dataset. Our findings highlighted the need for sustained media coverage and engagement for growing social movements and offered both theoretical and practical implications of media framing of social movements related to sport.