Media's View Of Aging Essay

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In all of these articles we can see a one-sided message that media has created distorting the view of aging. Media is the platform to communicate meanings and experiences of aging between generations, which often leads to ageism. Media portrayals of ageing not only reflect the widespread ageism in society, but also largely reinforce negative stereotypes. When aging is depicted in a manner that appears positive, the aim is often to push anti-ageing messages and frame defying ageing as the only example of successful ageing. One disturbing implication is that this age disparity, along with the relative absence of middle-age women on television, perpetuates the idea that women must remain youthful in appearance, This places women in a disadvantaged position do to …show more content…

Marketers and advertisers make choices every day that have an impact on how society views ageing. It is becoming increasingly untenable for advertisers and the advertising industry to continue either to portray older people in a negative and stereotypical manner or to ignore them completely (Carrigan and Szmigin, 2000). Advertisers need to start associating their products with older models and know by doing that it doesn’t create any negative connotations for the future consumer. Finally, commercials that contain older adults and products they represent are being promoted very little, which indicates that commercials containing older adults may emphasize different cultural values to viewers. In result, these cultural values may reinforce negative perceptions of the aging process, even while portraying individual older adults in a positive light (Zhang, Harwood, Williams, Ylänne-McEwen, Wadleigh, and Thimm

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