Contributed by Joe Montero

How ageing and older people are portrayed in the media has drawn the attention of the Age Discrimination Commission, and it has released commissioned report called Shaping perceptions: How Australian Media Reports on Ageing, This report analyses news reports across Australia’s major media networks.

Its findings are not good. The key ones are that older people are presented as a problem, their characteristics are merely frail and vulnerable people in decline, they are portrayed as a source of intergenerational conflict, their lives and lived experiences are made invisible, and gendered stereotypes are common. In short. older people are devalued. The focus of the report is on television media.

Media found to discriminate against older people

Media portrayal ignores the volunteer contributions of older Australians, without which society would not be able to function. These cover everything from looking after grandchildren and being carers for others, to charity work, land care, and continuing to deliver a host of professional services, and often as unpaid work.

These contributions are important. Their absence would impose a major burden and cost on the community, which would flow on to create a negative impact on the economy.

The scope of the report was limited to the role of the media. Consequently, its recommendations limited to this. Thus, it took on the impact of negative attitudes within the media, its lack of expertise in the field, and the inadequacy of the training of journalists on this issue.

“It is vital that older people are humanised and represented in mainstream culture, with their voices amplified, and the issues they face told in an accurate and inclusive way,” Age Discrimination Commissioner Robert Fitzgerald said. He called for a collaborative partnership between media and the age sector. This is positive.

Such a collaborative approach won’t correct the problem on its own. Media does not exist separately from the society in which it exists. origin is not within the media itself. It goes much deeper into Australian society. Ours is a society operates on a foundation where human beings have been commodified and their value is determined by how much they mean as inputs onto the workplace or customers to exploit, along the lines of crude capitalist class relationships. Very wealthy older Australians are far less likely to suffer the same discrimination than less wealthy working-class ones are.

This mindset of crude capitalism must go and be replaced by one that values the positive contributions and inclusion of all. Indigenous societies are a good example of this. They value their older members, their wisdom, and the specific contributions that they make. These societies don’t pit the younger against the older. There is respect.

Older Australians are people with a life

Australia is currently configured to keep older people without sufficient income to properly participate in social life, kept hidden away. Many, ultimately imprisoned in inadequate nursing homes and denied respect and a real life. Secondly, there is a lack of political leadership, which leads in combating the harmful stereotype.

Older people are capable, as their ongoing contributions to society testify. Their problem is that they are all too often isolated and lack organisational strength such as a union provides in the workplace.

Breaking down isolation and older people coming together can lead to overcoming organisational weakness. This needs the support of younger Australians to be made possible. If Australian society demands better treatment of its older members, it will come about.