How Old People (55+ Years Old) Are Influenced By Newspapers

Posted: March 26th, 2020

How Old People (55+ Years Old) Are Influenced By Newspapers

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How Old People (55+ Years Old) Are Influenced By Newspapers

Newspapers are a significant source for relaying all the political, economic and social events across the world in a summarized and affordable manner. They have tremendously changed the perception of the individuals residing within a society. However, it has particularly influenced the older segment of the population typically above 55 years of age. In the newspapers, most ageing people appear as unproductive, senile and expensive to maintain (Kroon, Van Selm, ter Hoeven, Claartje, & Vliegenthart, 2016). These differences in the perception of baby boomers are responsible for creating a wide rift between the older and younger generation (Murphy, Fatoye, & Wibberley, 2013). The outcome of this adverse perception of older people is evident in other areas such as the political scene in which most baby boomers voted for issues that directly benefited them.

This issue has been persistent for several years since baby boomers internalized the newspaper as the most popular source of news (Abdullah & Wolbring, 2013). During the period when the newspaper was popular, most of the baby boomers relied on it for accurate news. This group in society grew up with the notion that newspapers were the most legitimate source of news especially considering that they were published by the state (Moore, 2015). The implied perception is that broadcasters and websites are less reliable as they mostly respond to theincentive of news and rely heavily on content that derives from newspapers (Johnstone, 2016).

Occasionally, the results createdby thesenewspapers vary depending on the amount of bias allowed by the editors. However, since its advent, newspapers have been the most popular source of reliable information on diverse events (Novak, 2015). Their accuracy in handling facts of the activities is unquestionable. In theory, newspapers have the moral duty to ensure their content in authentic and objective (Rozanova, Miller, & Wetle, 2016). Additionally, the level of coverage of most newspapers is wide and includesissues that occur in diverse fields. Reading newspapers as well as other forms of literature was a culture developed by baby boomers and therefore, it is clear that they are strongly entrenched in this custom (Fraser, Kenyon, Lagacé, Wittich, & Southall, 2015). Even with the advent of Internet and mobile technology, baby boomers have still depended on the newspaper as their preferred source of information especially for breaking news, taxes and criminal activity (Martinson, & Berridge, 2015). Baby boomers prefer newspapers because of the level of detail in all the articles (Sixsmith et al, 2014). At that age, most of them enjoy spending time delving into the details in-depth and ensuring that they understand the story fully. Investing time in newspapers implies that they are influenced by such literature. Conversely, digital news formats are brief and short-term. They are also underlined by substantial inaccuracy, speculation and these makes the highly unreliable.

Newspapers are powerful agents of change and in assuming its role, have a massive influence on the older people in society (Powell, 2013; Weicht, 2013). In light of the assurances and evaluations covered in daily newspapers, older readers understand the newest developments to form an accurate perception of the society responsible for ushering in urbanization (Rodan & Ellis, 2016). In other words, they presume that the newspaper depiction of them as senile, dependent and unproductive is held as the universal perception (Hilt & Lipschultz, 2016; Beard & Payne, 2005). This consequently affects their self-esteem negatively as they feel unwanted and ineffective (Lehti, 2009). However, occasionally some print houses offer biased opinions on fundamental topics in society. Dealing with the elderly is a pertinent economic and social issue that affects both young and old people (Van Willigen, 2015). Making repeated negative opinions influences the minds of the target group negatively and creates discrepancies in communal thinking (Koskinen, Salminen, & Leino-Kilpi, 2014). It is difficult to maintain such a divided society that has been created by the malpractice of several media houses.

References

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Abdullah, B., & Wolbring, G. (2013). Analysis of Newspaper Coverage of active aging through the lens of the 2002 World Health Organization active ageing report: a policy framework and the 2010 Toronto charter for physical activity: a global call for action. International journal of environmental research and public health, 10(12), 6799-6819.

Beard, H., & Payne, B. K. (2005). Portrayal of Elder Abuse in the National Media. American Journal of Criminal Justice, 29, 2.)

Fraser, S. A., Kenyon, V., Lagacé, M., Wittich, W., & Southall, K. E. (2015). Stereotypes associated with age-related conditions and assistive device use in Canadian media. The Gerontologist.

Hilt, M. L., & Lipschultz, J. H. (2016). Mass media, an aging population, and the baby boomers. Routledge.

Johnstone, M. J. (2016). Alzheimer’s disease, media representations and the politics of euthanasia: constructing risk and selling death in an ageing society. Routledge.

Koskinen, S., Salminen, L., & Leino-Kilpi, H. (2014). Media portrayal of older people as illustrated in Finnish newspapers. International journal of qualitative studies on health and well-being, 9.

Kroon, A. C., Van Selm, M., ter Hoeven, Claartje. L., & Vliegenthart, R. (2016). Reliable and unproductive? Stereotypes of older employees in corporate and news media. Ageing & Society, 1-26.

Lehti, A. (2009). Struggling for clarity: Cultural context, gender and a concept of depression in general practice (Doctoral dissertation, Umeå University).

Martinson, M., & Berridge, C. (2015). Successful aging and its discontents: A systematic review of the social gerontology literature. The Gerontologist, 55(1), 58-69.

Moore, S. (2015). Older people. Oxford Handbook of Mental Health Nursing, 281.

Murphy, N. A., Fatoye, F., & Wibberley, C. (2013). The changing face of newspaper representations of the mentally ill. Journal of mental health, 22(3), 271-282.

Novak, M. (2015). Issues in aging. Routledge.

Powell, M. (2013). What Do Newspapers Say About Older Adults in the Workforce? In Ageism and Mistreatment of Older Workers (pp. 49-67). Springer Netherlands.

Rodan, D., & Ellis, K. (2016). Disability, obesity and ageing: Popular media identifications. Routledge.

Rozanova, J., Miller, E. A., & Wetle, T. (2016). Depictions of nursing home residents in US newspapers: successful ageing versus frailty. Ageing and Society, 36(01), 17-41.

Sixsmith, J., Sixsmith, A., Fänge, A. M., Naumann, D., Kucsera, C. S. A. B. A., Tomsone, S., & Woolrych, R. (2014). Healthy ageing and home: The perspectives of very old people in five European countries. Social Science & Medicine, 106, 1-9.

Van Willigen, J. (2015). Gettin’ some age on me: Social organization of older people in a rural American community. University Press of Kentucky.

Weicht, B. (2013). The making of ‘the elderly’: Constructing the subject of care. Journal of Aging Studies, 27(2), 188-197.

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