scholarly journals The media image of Chinese older people: From stigmatic stereotype to diverse self-representation

2021 ◽  
pp. 205943642110125
Author(s):  
Kun Li
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Older People ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Media Studies ◽  
Positive Attitude ◽  
Media Image ◽  
Past Life ◽  
The Media ◽  
Leisure And Recreation ◽  
Chinese Older People

From the perspective of communication and media studies, this article explores a comparison between the image of older adults presented on media and online self-representation facilitated by the use of smartphones. The qualitative textual analysis was conducted with a sample (228 posts, from 1 January to 31 December,2019) selected from a representative WeChat Public Account targeting at older adults in China. The results demonstrate that leisure and recreation is the most frequently mentioned topic (58%) with memories of past life receiving the least references (3%). The striking features of popular posts among older people include a highly emotional tone, bright colours and multimedia. Sentiment analyses shows 68.42%, 13.16% and 18.42% of positive, neutral and negative emotions, respectively. A generally positive attitude of self-representation is in a sharp contrast with the stigmatic media image of older adults. The article concludes that the visibility of Chinese older people may help to reduce the stigma surrounding old age in China.

scholarly journals Ageing, old age and media: Critical appraisal of knowledge practices in academic research

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-29
Author(s):  
Sara Mosberg Iversen ◽  
Monika Wilinska
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Media Studies ◽  
Common Sense ◽  
Critical Appraisal ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Critical Discussion ◽  
Media Representation ◽  
Knowledge Practices ◽  
The Media

This interpretative literature review discusses research published between 2000 and 2015 that focuses on the media representation of older adults. The key objective is to offer a critical discussion on the knowledge and assumptions underlying such studies. Specifically, the review examines how old age and media, respectively, are conceptualised in the research and the consequence this has for further research in the fields of ageing and media studies. The main finding from this review is that a large part of the research appears to say nothing about what old age and media are, as it either entirely fails to discuss what is meant by these terms or relies on common sense notions. The review concludes that research on older age and media suffers from a lack of dialogue over disciplinary borders and that this issue needs to be remedied. Likewise, for research to move on, it is imperative to take a more reflexive stance on the topics in order to avoid simplistic notions of both ageing and media.

scholarly journals The Myth of Old Age: Addressing the Issue of Dependency and Contribution in Old Age Using Empirical Examples From the United Kingdom

2020 ◽  
pp. 136078042093773
Author(s):  
Jeroen Spijker ◽  
Anna Schneider
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Older People ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Social Isolation ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Social Attitudes ◽  
Population Ageing ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Media ◽  
Over Time

In academia, policy-making and the media, population ageing often has negative connotations: it is associated with a rising care burden on society, with dependency, and with a fear of social isolation. The concepts pertaining to old age have evolved over time, and some of them challenge criticize this popular perception. This article begins with an overview of the development of social attitudes towards old age. Then, with the help of publicly available UK data, it addresses three areas in which old age and population ageing is perceived as problematic: poor health, dependency on other people’s productivity, and the role older adults play in the care cycle. Due to the diversity of the population aged 65+, we question the necessity of distinguishing older people in terms of age or dependency and instead recommend more research into the heterogeneity of the older population.

The ‘loneliness pandemic’: implications for gerontological nursing

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (11) ◽  
pp. 652-655
Author(s):  
Carlos Laranjeira
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Older Adults ◽  
Older People ◽  
Chronic Diseases ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Social Isolation ◽  
Social Relationships ◽  
Vulnerable Groups ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Gerontological Nursing

The COVID-19 pandemic compelled states to limit free movement, in order to protect at-risk and more vulnerable groups, particularly older adults. Due to old age or debilitating chronic diseases, this group is also more vulnerable to loneliness (perceived discrepancy between actual and desired social relationships) and social isolation (feeling that one does not belong to society). This forced isolation has negative consequences for the health of older people, particularly their mental health. This is an especially challenging time for gerontological nursing, but it is also an opportunity for professionals to combat age stereotypes reinforced with COVID-19, to urge the measurement of loneliness and social isolation, and to rethink how to further adjust interventions in times of crisis, such as considering technology-mediated interventions in these uncertain times.

Alignment or struggle? Exploring socio-demographic correlates of individual modernity in Chinese older people

2014 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 133-159 ◽  
Author(s):  
XUE BAI
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Older People ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
Living Arrangement ◽  
Industrial Society ◽  
Ageing Population ◽  
Demographic Correlates ◽  
Individual Modernity ◽  
Chinese Older People ◽  
Socio Demographic Factors

ABSTRACTIt is noteworthy that while modernisation, together with population ageing, has happened in Western countries for a rather long period of time, China must confront the challenges of an ageing population before it really becomes an advanced industrial society. Facing rapid societal changes, citizens may react differently to this process. By conducting questionnaire surveys with 445 elders in Wuhan, China, this study examines Chinese older adults' individual modernity modes and reveals its socio-demographic correlates. The results show that facing rapid changes in societal modernisation, participants have reacted differently to this process, with 23.8 per cent of Chinese older participants using an accommodation mode, 27.0 per cent using a resistance mode, 13.3 per cent using a withdrawal mode and 36.2 per cent using a coping mode. In addition, socio-demographic factors such as urban–rural residence, age, gender, socio-economic status, living arrangement and daily activities have been identified as significant correlates of Chinese older participants' individual modernity modes. It is further suggested that governments at all levels should allow for options and opportunities for older people to align themselves in the modernisation process by removing the barriers that may hinder their integration and empowerment efforts. While it is important to respect older adults' different responses in the face of modernisation, their participation in societies should be encouraged and respected by the wider society in the context of modernisation.

scholarly journals Thoughts on the Ageing Body

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesca Ghillani
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Older People ◽  
Active Role ◽  
The Body ◽  
Negative Stereotypes ◽  
Artificial Image ◽  
The Media ◽  
Ageing Body ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Positive Representations

AbstractRecent studies have taken into account the fact that the lives of older people have changed drastically in the past fifty years. Older people today engage more with society and are also expected to maintain an active role in their communities. In order to maintain a positive social status, todays older adults need both to challenge negative stereotypes and also to achieve the “unachievable” positive representations in the media. Society plays a complex game of bodily images: the artificial image of the human body in the media, the image that individuals try to project, and the image that society reflects back to the individual. When the three don’t coincide, the collision creates a distancing effect. To truly understand the lived experiences of older adults in contemporary society we must explore the changing perceptions of the body. This review will illustrate the arguments both classical and contemporary through an exploration of the ageing female body, which remains the focus of most of the literature.

scholarly journals Ageing in Urban Neighbourhoods: Exploring Place Insideness Amongst Older Adults in India, Brazil and the United Kingdom

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-223
Author(s):  
Ryan Woolrych ◽  
Jamuna Duvurru ◽  
Adriana Portella ◽  
Judith Sixsmith ◽  
Deborah Menezes ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Older People ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Sense Of Place ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Urban Neighbourhoods

The ageing in place agenda emphasises the importance of supporting older adults to age in their communities surrounded by the personal resources to age well. In exploring the relationship between older people and their environment, the concept of place insideness is seen as central to constructing feelings of identity, belonging and attachment in old age. Yet there has been little research exploring how older adults experience place insideness across different urban, social and cultural contexts which is an impediment to identifying effective interventions for age-friendly cities and communities. This article explores how place insideness is experienced amongst older adults across India, Brazil and the United Kingdom. The article presents qualitative findings from 294 semi-structured interviews collected across 9 cities and 27 neighbourhoods. The findings reveal that older adults cultivate their sense of place insideness in old age through dimensions of physical insideness (i.e., environmental competence in navigating and engaging in the community), social insideness (i.e., knowing others) and autobiographical insideness (i.e., shared place histories). In drawing on older people’s understanding of their communities, this article explores the opportunities and challenges in developing a sense of place insideness to support ageing well. We identify implications for policy and practice in terms of how we can better design urban environments as age-friendly communities which support a greater sense of place for older people.

scholarly journals Stereotypes of Old Age

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (20) ◽  
pp. 69-88
Author(s):  
Christiane Monteiro Machado ◽  
Jorge Pedro Sousa
Keyword(s):  
Social Interaction ◽  
Social Construction ◽  
Older People ◽  
Elderly People ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Social Values ◽  
Ageing Process ◽  
The Media ◽  
Advertising Spending ◽  
Negative Stereotyping

Ageing, more than a demographic phenomenon (a consolidated process in Europe, still a recent one in Brazil), is a social construction influenced by the media. Advertising, which simultaneously reflects and contributes to the construction of social values, uses stereotypes as a tool for creating easily identifiable characters. This study aims at identifying aspects explored by advertising messages using stereotypes to portray older people. The sample consists of nineteen pieces selected from more than 4,500 posts on Facebook and Youtube by the ten companies with the largest advertising spending in Brazil from July 2017 to June 2018. Among the 104 pieces that feature elderly people, nineteen did use stereotypes. In twelve of them, positive stereotypes, always related to longlife accumulated experience, while seven included negative traits, such as elderly people losing touch with reality, having difficulties with technology, poor social interaction, physical impairements, or old-fashioned clothing. Negative stereotyping reflects an outdated perspective of the ageing process.

Attitude of Nurses Toward the Care of Older Adults in China

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (6) ◽  
pp. 597-602 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiuyan Lan ◽  
Qiuhua Chen ◽  
Bilan Yi
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Logistic Regression ◽  
Data Analysis ◽  
Older People ◽  
Registered Nurses ◽  
Odds Ratio ◽  
Positive Attitude ◽  
Descriptive Statistics ◽  
Care Practice ◽  
Online Questionnaire

Introduction: The aim of this study was to assess the attitudes of registered nurses toward older adults in China. Method: An online questionnaire was sent to registered nurses of five hospitals. The sample included 1,367 registered nurses in this study. Kogan’s Attitudes toward Older People Scale and Facts of Aging Quiz were used to collect data. Descriptive statistics, independent t-tests, one-way analysis of variance and logistic regression were used for data analysis. Results: Registered nurses held a positive attitude toward older adults (155.09 ± 21.94). The experience of being cared by older adults (odds ratio [ OR] = 1.545, p = .007) and relationship with older adults ( OR = 2.440, p = .000) were associated with the attitudes of registered nurses. Discussion: Registered nurses in China held a positive attitude toward older adults. The results contribute to care practice for the older adults in hospitals.

scholarly journals Lost and unfulfilled relationships behind emotional loneliness in old age

2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (5) ◽  
pp. 1068-1088 ◽  
Author(s):  
ELISA TIILIKAINEN ◽  
MARJAANA SEPPÄNEN
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Cohort Study ◽  
Older People ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Qualitative Approach ◽  
Childhood Experiences ◽  
Everyday Lives ◽  
Emotional Loneliness ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Depth Interviews

ABSTRACTUsing a qualitative approach, this article examines how the experiences of emotional loneliness are embedded in the everyday lives and relationships of older adults. Ten in-depth interviews were conducted in 2010 with older people who reported feeling lonely, often or all the time, during a cohort study in southern Finland. The research reveals the multifaceted nature of loneliness and its causes. Behind emotional loneliness, we identified lost and unfulfilled relationships, involving the loss or lack of a partner, the absence of a meaningful friendship, complex parenthood and troubling childhood experiences. Most of the interviewees have faced loneliness that only began in old age, but for some, loneliness has been present for nearly a lifetime.

scholarly journals The “Vulnerability” Discourse in Times of Covid-19: Between Abandonment and Protection of Canadian Francophone Older Adults

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martine Lagacé ◽  
Amélie Doucet ◽  
Pascale Dangoisse ◽  
Caroline D. Bergeron
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Older People ◽  
Aging Process ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Social Representations ◽  
Media Discourse ◽  
Linguistic Minority ◽  
Stereotype Content ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Media

The Covid-19 pandemic has been particularly difficult for older Canadians who have experienced age discrimination. As the media can provide a powerful channel for conveying stereotypes, the current study aimed to explore how Canadian Francophone older adults and the aging process were depicted by the media during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, and to examine if and how the media discourse contributed to ageist attitudes and behaviors. A content analysis of two French Canadian media op-eds and comment pieces (n = 85) published over the course of the first wave of the pandemic was conducted. Findings reveal that the aging process was mainly associated with words of decline, loss, and vulnerability. More so, older people were quasi-absent if not silent in the media discourse. Older adults were positioned as people to fight for and not as people to fight along with in the face of the pandemic. The findings from this study enhance the understanding of theories and concepts of the Theory of Social Representations and the Stereotype Content Model while outlining the importance of providing older people with a voice and a place in the shaping of public discourse around aging. Results also illustrate the transversality and influence of ageism in this linguistic minority context.

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