THE ROLE OF MEDIA AS A A SOCIAL AWARENESS TOOL AMONG THE DISABLED IN MALAYSIA

Media is a way that can provide information on disabled people and ways to help them. This research is carried out to review the functions of mass media in spreading information to society on the issues of equal rights for disabled people. This is to raise public awareness on disabled people's rights through mass media. As a result of the lack of valid knowledge about the function of mass media as a socio-cultural trend formation as well as information on disabled people have equal rights, then this has caused difficulty in understanding the process of identifying, evaluating and formation of behavior in society. In other words, so far the information obtained are not empirical and loose. Because of that, this research is carried out to help overcome society's lack of information and knowledge on disabled people's rights in Malaysia from the media and society's perspective. The theory used for this research is the cultivation theory. The findings of this research are expected to give a clear picture on the equal rights of disabled people to society and give a better input to further raise public awareness on the disabled, ensuring the acceptance of the community in society.