Age in the media

• Representations of age

  • Functionalists argue that these representations are an essential part of the socialisation process
  • Mass media functions to equip children and young people with appropriate values and norms required to be good citizens
  • Media stories about children and young people reinforce social expectations as to how those groups should behave and, importantly, what happens to them when they do not
  • Help to control the behaviour of young people socially
• Childhood

  • Cute - babies and toddlers eg. Pampers adverts
  • Consumers - pester power and advertisements on the TV. Parents are forced to buy the latest products for their children and often force poor parents into debt eg. Veruca Salt
  • Little angels - idealised way, innocent and no malice eg. Perfect Peter
  • Little devils - children seen as 'cheeky monkeys' but are appealing and naughty eg. Bart Simpson
  • Victims eg. Madeline McCann
  • Prodigies eg. Young Sheldon
  • Acessories eg. Toddlers 'n' Tiaras
• Childhood - Heintz-Knowles

  • Study of children on television found that children are often portrayed as motivated primarily by peer relationships, sports or religious issues
  • Rarely shown as coping with societal issues such as racism or with major family issues such as child abuse and domestic violence
  • 40% of television drama, nevertheless, depicted children engaged in anti-social actions, such as lying and bullying
  • EVALUATION - more recently, there are more drama issues being represented
• Childhood

  • Children are also represented in TV commercials in ways that socialise them to become active consumers
  • encouraged by television advertising and film merchandising to have an appetite for toys and games
  • Evans and Chandler - emergence of pester power
• Youth

  • Tend to be much more negative portrayals than children eg. moral panics scapegoat youths
  • There is a whole media industry aimed at socially constructing youth in terms of lifestyle and identity
  • Magazines, record companies, mobile phone companies all targeted at young people
• How the media attacks youth

  • Cohen - rival youth subcultures Mods n Rockers on UK seaside resorts
  • They were turned into folk devils along with subsequent moral panics such as drug taking ravers and 'hoodies'
  • Wayne et al. - content analysis of news programmes across main channels in one month and found 82% of news items focused on young people and violent crime
• Theoretical perspectives of young people

  • Functionalists - media representations function to maintain and normalise boundaries of socially expected behaviour. Media representations remind adolescents what is socially expected of them and the punishments they can expect if they transgress
  • Interactionists - young people are frequently labelled by older generations as a threat to social stability because they often challenge their authority. Media representations and the moral panics that often result from these are attempts at social control.
• The elderly

  • Tend to be portrayed negatively
  • Newman - upper/middle class elderly people are often portrayed as being in leadership positions and male news anchors are usually elderly men paired with a much younger female
  • Elderliness is portrayed as a phase of life to be delayed and avoided eg. beauty products
• Stereotypes of age

  • Grumpy - eg. Scrooge from ACC
  • Burden - the ageing population is often discussed as a problem to society in economic terms and to their families
  • Infantile - presented as childlike in the media rather than older adults
  • Demented or confused
  • Second Childhood
  • EVALUATION -  media producers may be gradually reinventing how they deal with the elderly, especially as they realise that this group may have disposable incomes (grey pound)
  • Lee et al - represented as the golden agers seen as fit and healthy