The media has different representations of the elderly. The elderly is not always portrayed well in the media. In fact, the media has shown the elderly has sympathetic and naïve in some ways. The elderly people suffer from a negative stereotype. Many times in the media, the elderly are shown with preconceived pessimistic notions about their health, mental state of mind, personality and other characteristics. Elderly people are also shown as out of touch and not as advanced especially with all the new technology. There are some influences in the American culture that could possibly be some of the reasoning for the negative outlook of elderly people. Some of these influences include a general devaluation of tradition and the fact that there is such a strong association with death and old age.
The media has also played a major role in showing the positive ideals and lifestyles of young and lively. Baby-boomers are sometimes depicted as “geezer-like” and sometimes self-pitying. Many political issues surrounding the elderly such as social security and healthcare do not bring out the best presentation of old people.
To get an insight view of what comes up in the media regarding elderly people, I went to youtube.com and typed in “elderly people.” The results that showed were what I expected. Many of the clips were about death and diseases that affected elderly people.
The clips that I watched were somewhat depressing and dealt with saddening issues of becoming old. There was even a clip called “Sarah Silverman-You’re Gonna Die Soon”. I am somewhat surprised by the negativity that is out on the web about old people. There was hardly any positive clips of the elderly that came up right way on youtube.
The first clip that appeared was called “Elderly People and the Cold” It is clip from 1977 in the UK and although it is quite outdated, it was the first match that appeared from the search of elderly people. The clip is only 45 seconds but shows an elderly woman sitting in her living room while a man is speaking about the cold and hypothermia. The man speaking tells how if elderly people are in the cold temperate areas they can suffer from hypothermia but also it says “left unattended they can collapse and die.” This is public information film that was shown around the country. This clip shows that only is the American media somewhat bias in its showing of the elderly but also countries around the world.
The woman in the clip was really old, with wrinkles and did not smile at all. The angles of her face and body posture were also shown so that it made the film more dramatic. It then shows the mailman dropping off the mail and the elderly woman is unable to get the mail because she is too old. The woman looks very depressed and sad in the clip. This supports the stereotype that old people are helpless, sad, and unable to take care of themselves.
The next video on the list is called “ Camp for elderly people with Diabetes” so once again this enhances the connection between elderly people and illnesses. The clip opens up with a woman sitting with elderly people and taking blood of one woman. The music is a violin and is dramatic but miserable at the same time. The setting is on a lake. After talking to the woman for a bit it shows a scenic route of a lakeshore. The woman then goes on to describe what the camp is about.
With the first video clip there was a large use of close-up shots of the woman. This technique dramatizes the symbolic importance of the woman’s wrinkled aged face. This clip also used many low-angle shots, looking up the woman’s face, which again is associating power of her elderliness. The second video clip also uses a few different film critiques. One of the techniques is that the camera goes back and forth of zooming in and out on important details relating to diabetes and elderly people. For example, in one shot the camera zooms in on someone drawing blood to test the blood-sugar level.
These film techniques have placed a large emphasis on the physical aspects of the elderly. It shows that elderly people have a negative view of elderly people.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Media Ethnographers
Media Ethnography is a fairly new concept and has especially taken off in this media-drive environment. According to Beacher, media ethnographers study “how audiences assume the active role of constructing the meaning of media texts” (Beach 55). Audiences have many ways in which they can participate in media interactions. There are various ways in which people participate in media such as, blogging, virtual social networks, computer/video games, and chatrooms. Even sitting in the living room watching E! News is a form of media interaction.
Audience consumerism is another aspect of the media realm that media ethnographers study. The commercials on television and radio are prim examples of how audiences listen and observe such things and then go into the real world and actually purchase the items. I conducted my observations on the social network Facebook. Facebook has developed immensely over the years and it is adding more and more different types of interactions among people using it. One of the components on facebook is that a member can become a “fan” of celebrities, athletes, or other public figures. I am a fan of Nicholas D. Kristof who is a columnist for the New York Times. On these web pages there is room for a description of what the person does and how they are known. Also, there is a spot to upload videos, notes, discussion board, and a wall for comments.
On the discussion board, people are able to post topics that are open for discussion. There are many discussions open on Kristof’s articles, the usual articles and topics are triggered with political and social issues affecting the world. I have posted the article along with some of the people’s comments, however I have changed the names. These are some of the people’s reactions and comments.
Samantha Johnson*:
http://www.independent.ie/opinion/columnists/kevin-myers/africa-is-giving nothing-to-anyone--apart-from-aids-1430428.html
A friend sent this article around today. It was shocking, depressing, and hard to argue against except for one thing: if we give up hope for Africa, then Africa will truly be lost.
Jacob Anderson*
I couldn’t agree with you more. On the world stage Africa brings up the rear. It’s more of an after thought, and makes the headlines for all the wrong reasons. There is a lot more happening there than political strife and bloodshed. I should know having lived there.
Francis Arold*
Such a sad article and yes from the world’s viewpoint, it’s on target. But if we decide that we will only do the right thing when it is expedient, then we have lost a part of our humanity. Sometimes we have to keep on doing the right thing even in the face of insurmountable odds. And every once in awhile we are given a glimpse of hope that keeps us going (e.g. the fall of Romania’s Nicolae Ceausescu in the 1980’s) Never let utility trump compassion.
Kristof is well known as a humanist and quite liberal. The audience that reads Kristof’s editorials are usually very liberal and very into world cultures and help in a global sense. The young woman who posted this article was addressing the problem of Africa as a whole. I believe that one of the shared agendas was that of showing the type of ignorance and lack of compassion that some people show towards the issues within Africa but also just what kind of media that can be published. Although the author may have actually believed what he was writing and publishing but it could also have the shock value. It could be that some of what the author wrote was just for shock value in the media, to get a reaction.
The responses of this posting were all generally the same, that is author and article are ridiculous, but on the website he does have people who did agree with him but not on the facebook discussion board. The shared discourse of this article is that one of disbelief that someone could write something so negative about millions of people but also that of hope that the United States and other world leaders. It is humanistic discourse and world issues agenda that is being addressed.
Media participation in this situation has a few different circles. The young woman who posted the discussion board article had been participating in another media interaction by browsing other websites and what not. She then found information that interested her and posted it, thus participating in another media interaction. Audience participation is very interactive and one source can be turned into another source of participation. There are no boundaries with media participation.
Audience consumerism is another aspect of the media realm that media ethnographers study. The commercials on television and radio are prim examples of how audiences listen and observe such things and then go into the real world and actually purchase the items. I conducted my observations on the social network Facebook. Facebook has developed immensely over the years and it is adding more and more different types of interactions among people using it. One of the components on facebook is that a member can become a “fan” of celebrities, athletes, or other public figures. I am a fan of Nicholas D. Kristof who is a columnist for the New York Times. On these web pages there is room for a description of what the person does and how they are known. Also, there is a spot to upload videos, notes, discussion board, and a wall for comments.
On the discussion board, people are able to post topics that are open for discussion. There are many discussions open on Kristof’s articles, the usual articles and topics are triggered with political and social issues affecting the world. I have posted the article along with some of the people’s comments, however I have changed the names. These are some of the people’s reactions and comments.
Samantha Johnson*:
http://www.independent.ie/opinion/columnists/kevin-myers/africa-is-giving nothing-to-anyone--apart-from-aids-1430428.html
A friend sent this article around today. It was shocking, depressing, and hard to argue against except for one thing: if we give up hope for Africa, then Africa will truly be lost.
Jacob Anderson*
I couldn’t agree with you more. On the world stage Africa brings up the rear. It’s more of an after thought, and makes the headlines for all the wrong reasons. There is a lot more happening there than political strife and bloodshed. I should know having lived there.
Francis Arold*
Such a sad article and yes from the world’s viewpoint, it’s on target. But if we decide that we will only do the right thing when it is expedient, then we have lost a part of our humanity. Sometimes we have to keep on doing the right thing even in the face of insurmountable odds. And every once in awhile we are given a glimpse of hope that keeps us going (e.g. the fall of Romania’s Nicolae Ceausescu in the 1980’s) Never let utility trump compassion.
Kristof is well known as a humanist and quite liberal. The audience that reads Kristof’s editorials are usually very liberal and very into world cultures and help in a global sense. The young woman who posted this article was addressing the problem of Africa as a whole. I believe that one of the shared agendas was that of showing the type of ignorance and lack of compassion that some people show towards the issues within Africa but also just what kind of media that can be published. Although the author may have actually believed what he was writing and publishing but it could also have the shock value. It could be that some of what the author wrote was just for shock value in the media, to get a reaction.
The responses of this posting were all generally the same, that is author and article are ridiculous, but on the website he does have people who did agree with him but not on the facebook discussion board. The shared discourse of this article is that one of disbelief that someone could write something so negative about millions of people but also that of hope that the United States and other world leaders. It is humanistic discourse and world issues agenda that is being addressed.
Media participation in this situation has a few different circles. The young woman who posted the discussion board article had been participating in another media interaction by browsing other websites and what not. She then found information that interested her and posted it, thus participating in another media interaction. Audience participation is very interactive and one source can be turned into another source of participation. There are no boundaries with media participation.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
The Portrayal of the Elderly in the Media
The Portrayal of the Elderly in the Media
The media represents different things in many ways. One way that interests me is how elderly people are viewed and portrayed in the media. There are many stereotypes of older people in the media, there is also the difference in how female and male elderly people are viewed. Elderly men are often viewed as grumpy while some elderly women are shown as hostile; both are shown sometimes as lonely, depressed, poor, sick, wisdom, and coming back to life. Often in the newspaper and the news channels they show elderly people who are sick and cannot afford their healthcare, or they show them getting robbed or something else terrible. These clippings tend to construct an idea that elderly people cannot take care of themselves. It also has a tendency to make other people feel sorry for them.
With the recent financial crisis and the number of abuse of elderly people in nursing homes tends to make younger people feel sorry for them, while other shows depict elderly people as being angry, old, and not up to date on recent technologies and cultural practices. As like with any stereotypical depiction there is some sort of basis or truth. People find it easy to pity elderly people especially when it comes to social security, healthcare and other issues that effect them directly. With this angle also being shown in the media, it is hard to believe or hear about when an elderly person commits a crime or does something bad. There are hardly ever cases of when elderly people are the ones committing the crime or wrongful deeds. In many stories and literatures a lot of the elderly people also represent wisdom and are shown as very knowledgeable.
Elderly people are viewed a little differently in psychology than they are in the popular media. “More important, we can inform students confidently that most older adults are not lonely, isolated, sick and frail. Rather, the elderly live independently and maintain contact with their families. We also know, contrary to the depression myth, that community-dwelling older adults have lower rates of diagnosable depression than younger adults” (http://www.apa.org/monitor/aug98/aging.html) Some psychologists view aging as a good thing rather than a negative thing, which the media portrays. The number of elderly people is rapidly increasing yet the portrayal of them is still the same. Although some elderly people are sick with specific disorders because of old age not all elderly people are as helpless as the media portrays them to be. The discipline of psychology takes different approaches to the elderly depending on the context and area of psychology one is studying. However, the psychology discipline does take a much more humanistic and authentic view of the elderly and often views them with more respect and less sympathetic for them unlike the popular media.
The media represents different things in many ways. One way that interests me is how elderly people are viewed and portrayed in the media. There are many stereotypes of older people in the media, there is also the difference in how female and male elderly people are viewed. Elderly men are often viewed as grumpy while some elderly women are shown as hostile; both are shown sometimes as lonely, depressed, poor, sick, wisdom, and coming back to life. Often in the newspaper and the news channels they show elderly people who are sick and cannot afford their healthcare, or they show them getting robbed or something else terrible. These clippings tend to construct an idea that elderly people cannot take care of themselves. It also has a tendency to make other people feel sorry for them.
With the recent financial crisis and the number of abuse of elderly people in nursing homes tends to make younger people feel sorry for them, while other shows depict elderly people as being angry, old, and not up to date on recent technologies and cultural practices. As like with any stereotypical depiction there is some sort of basis or truth. People find it easy to pity elderly people especially when it comes to social security, healthcare and other issues that effect them directly. With this angle also being shown in the media, it is hard to believe or hear about when an elderly person commits a crime or does something bad. There are hardly ever cases of when elderly people are the ones committing the crime or wrongful deeds. In many stories and literatures a lot of the elderly people also represent wisdom and are shown as very knowledgeable.
Elderly people are viewed a little differently in psychology than they are in the popular media. “More important, we can inform students confidently that most older adults are not lonely, isolated, sick and frail. Rather, the elderly live independently and maintain contact with their families. We also know, contrary to the depression myth, that community-dwelling older adults have lower rates of diagnosable depression than younger adults” (http://www.apa.org/monitor/aug98/aging.html) Some psychologists view aging as a good thing rather than a negative thing, which the media portrays. The number of elderly people is rapidly increasing yet the portrayal of them is still the same. Although some elderly people are sick with specific disorders because of old age not all elderly people are as helpless as the media portrays them to be. The discipline of psychology takes different approaches to the elderly depending on the context and area of psychology one is studying. However, the psychology discipline does take a much more humanistic and authentic view of the elderly and often views them with more respect and less sympathetic for them unlike the popular media.
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