How to Cite

Groß, Simon et al.: Altersbezogene Themen in europäischen Tageszeitungen, in Kruse, Andreas and Schmitt, Eric (Eds.): „... der Augenblick ist mein und nehm ich den in Acht“: Daseinsthemen und Lebenskontexte alter Menschen, Heidelberg: Heidelberg University Publishing, 2022, p. 319–351. https://doi.org/10.17885/heiup.844.c12430

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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https://doi.org/10.17885/heiup.844
ISBN 978-3-96822-075-8 (PDF)
ISBN 978-3-96822-076-5 (Hardcover)

Published

04/14/2022

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Authors

Eric Schmitt, Andreas Kruse, Simon Groß, Jörg Hinner, Umut Deniz Isik, Dimitrios Kampanaros, Rebekka Schmitt

Altersbezogene Themen in europäischen Tageszeitungen

Abstract This chapter reports the results of a comprehensive analysis of representations of age and ageing in 49 national daily newspapers from 14 European countries. Over two or (for Germany) three periods of six months, a total of 4,159 articles were identified in which topics related to age and ageing were prominently dealt with. This corresponds to an average number of about seven articles per news­paper per month. These articles can be subsumed under six areas on which the presentation of the analysis results is based: (1) age and society: opportunities and challenges, (2) successful / good ageing, (3) health-related losses, (4) plasticity of health in old age, (5) poverty and social inequality, (6) politics. First of all, it becomes apparent that age and ageing - beyond all country-specific differences - are reg­ularly treated as prominent topics in national daily newspapers. Findings do not support the assump­tion that media interest in age and ageing has increased because of ongoing demographic change. Obviously, various indicators of demographic development cannot explain similarities and differences between countries. The topics prominently dealt with in the identified articles are very heterogeneous and in their entirety reflect neither a one-sided focus on risks, limitations and losses nor a perspective which over-accentuates opportunities, acquired competencies and potentials. Rather, as a whole, they reflect the media’s recognition of the pronounced diversity in age and ageing. At the same time, this means that people can concentrate on very different things in their reception of representations of age and ageing. Individuals can “confirm” their views of self and world by focusing on selected informa­tion and interpretations, just as they might see them questioned and threatened.

 Keywords Ageism, age stereotypes, demographic change, media reports, successful aging