Media representations of age

Marxism theory of age (children)

Stereotypes of children in the media include: cute/appealing, innocent, cheeky/naughty in a funny way. Children are encouraged by TV advertising and marketing to desire toys and games (false needs are created).

Evans and Chandler note that this has led to a family pressure they term ‘pester power’. This is the power of children to train or manipulate their parents to spend money on consumer goods that will increase the children’s status in the eyes of their peers.

What did Wayne (Marxism) say about young people in the media?

Wayne researched the content of news programmes across the main channels and found that 82% of news items concentrated on young people and violent crime, mostly perpetrators and so less victims. They further found that young people’s own perspectives or views on a news item were only sought in 1% of cases.

What does the grey pound mean?

Grey pound is the disposable income of m/c pensioners and the elderly are used as a consumer group.

What does the Marxist theorist, Newman say about older people being represented in the media?

Stereotypes: grumpy, mentally challenged e.g easily confused, frail, infantile/child-like.

Newman: upper and middle class elderly people (particularly men) are often portrayed as being in leadership positions or elite occupations: presidents, judges and businessmen.

Evaluation of Marxist theory of media reps of age

Deterministic: assumes the audience interprets or decodes the media messages in the way they have been encoded. 

Reductionist: Media reps of age are seen as an outcome of a capitalist system rather than seeing age as an inequality in its own right.

Feminist theory of media reps of age- older people

Stoller and Gibson found that elderly women are mainly shown in social, family and recreational settings and represented as passive, socially isolated, unpleasant and poor.

Feminist theory of media reps of age- middle aged people

Middle aged women are often moved from the ‘front of the camera’ roles when they’re middle aged- actresses get much fewer roles the older they get.

Wolf’s the beauty myth can be applied here as ads target women approaching middle age- they’re targeted as a consumer group.

Evaluation of the feminist theory of media reps of age 

The feminist view is too deterministic, implying the media simply reflects and reinforces dominant ideologies, like patriarchy without acknowledging the audiences agency. 

What is the Interactionist theory of media reps of teens and young adults?

Cohen: stereotypical portrayals can often lead to labelling and self-fufilling prophecies. Young people are often labelled as a threat to social stability by older people because they challenge their authority. 

Negative reps of young people and the moral panics that can result are a way to take back control. Moral panics occur when the media portrays a group to be a folk devil (threat to society). The news exaggerates the groups deviant behaviour, and makes predictions and uses symbolisation (seeing an item associated with the group e.g, a hoodie as a sign as disorder) to create anxiety in the population. 

Evaluation of the Interactionist theory

Marxist sociologists would argue that the interactionist approach fails to consider how the media is owned and controlled by the bourgeoisie. 

What is the Postmodernist theory of media reps of age?

Media representations are fragmented, fluid and diverse. They can challenge fixed ideas of age, people can resist traditional roles (e.g older adults as fashionable, active or tech-savvy).

Lee: a study of ads revealed that old people were underrepresented, appearing in only 15% of ads, but of those 15%, more than 90% of those representations were positive- portraying elderly people as ‘golden agers’ enjoying wealthy, active lifestyles.

Evaluation of Postmodernism

Marxist sociologists would argue that the postmodernist approach fails to consider how the media is owned and controlled by the bourgeoisie. For e.g, the portrayal of young people as dangerous or older people as useless can serve the interests of capitalism, keeping certain groups marginalised, compliant, or anxious consumers.

What is the Pluralist theory of media reps of age?

They argue that the media in democratic societies offers a variety of representations of children because media outlets cater to different audiences.

Pluralists believe that media content is largely driven by what audiences want to see. If a certain representation of children is popular the media will continue to produce it to satisfy demand and attract audiences. This reflects the principal of supply and demand; the media has to meet consumer demand in order to be successful.

Evaluation of Pluralist theory

Pluralists ignore how the media actively shapes public tastes and opinions over time. The media doesn’t just reflect the views of audiences, it creates them. 

What is the Functionalist theory of media reps of age?

Children, teenagers: Functionalist argue that media representations of age are part of the socialisation process, because they equip children and young people with the values and norms needed to be good citizens. Media representations engage in boundary maintenance. Media reps help to control the behaviour of young people socially and, as such, they’re regarded as crucial to safeguarding both conformity and social stability.

Evaluation of Functionalism

The Functionalist view portrays young people as passive recipients of media messages, but Postmodernists argue that audiences are active: they interpret and respond to media in different ways (user-generated content).