Media Review
The purpose of the assignment is to address the question: Does the Media perpetuate ageism?
Students are to review their daily newspapers, weekly magazines, and favourite television shows to determine how elders are depicted and how stereotypes are perpetuated. Students should review ads, news articles and accounts, television images, and commentary. Address the following How are older people portrayed?
How often were older people represented or highlighted? Were the images of older people positive or negative? How so? Were older men viewed differently than older women? How so? Was cultural and ethnic diversity reflected in the images of aging? Was aging viewed as positive and life-affirming, or was it viewed as negative, a process of deterioration? Was aging seen as a process to deny or to embrace?
If an older person was portrayed as a member of a family, how did other family members view him/her? With reverence or with disdain? How often did you see younger persons interacting with older persons? How often did you see images which reflected the older person’s capacity for love and intimacy?
What are your closing thoughts about what you review? You MUST tie these questions into at least TWO theories we have learned about in this course. must be written as a paper and not just a list of answers to questions.
