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In welcher Hinsicht sollte sich die mediale Darstellung von Altern und Alter verändern?
Die Sicht von Journalistinnen und Journalisten
Abstract This chapter reports the results of interviews with media representatives who have a lasting impact on portrayals of ageing, old age and older people in print media through the selection of information and the type of its reproduction as well as through the planning of articles referring to ageing and age-related issues. The focus here is initially on subjective perceptions of actual representations of ageing and age in the media and the contribution of the media to more comprehensive societal, political, and cultural discourses which fundamentally touch on questions of age and ageing. The question is then asked, which age-related topics should be given particular weight in the media from the perspective of journalists and editors-in-chief. In the study “Altern in Balance” N = 160 journalists were interviewed; 122 from Germany, 32 from neighbouring countries (Switzerland, Austria, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium, France), six from a distant foreign country; N = 50 journalists held the position of editors. The journalists were asked to name current thematic contexts of the portrayal of ageing and age and to evaluate characteristic statements for the respective contexts. The editors were first asked which terms they thought were used to represent or characterise “age and demographic change” in print media. Here we received a very varied representation of the images of age as perceived by editors. In addition, the question was posed as to which aspects of ageing are in particular need of clarification by the print media. An attempt was also made to arrive at a more general characterisation of images of age – from the perspective of the editors working in Germany (N = 38). Here it was noticeable that they still perceive strongly deficit-oriented images of old age in the print media.
Keywords Media reports, media representatives, portrayal of age and ageing, societal discourses
