5.3 Academics (a) Lack of consensus regarding ageism in the Australian media Among the academics interviewed for this research, most recognised and supported the Commission’s work and research on ageism. However, there was a lack of consensus among these interviewees as to whether ageism in the Australian media was a meaningful problem. Academics who did see ageism as a foundational problem in the media expressed a range of views including that: l l l l l l l l l There has been inadequate focus on age and ageing in the Australian media and that a ‘spotlight’ is welcome, as it is a ‘universal truth that we are all getting older’ and ‘what we see influences expectations’. The media has ‘the power to reinforce stereotypes’ but also to provide new visions about what it means to age well. Ageism is firmly ingrained in society, where ‘old’ is synonymous with ‘bad’. Ageism is reinforced in the media, where older people are characterised as ‘frail, foolish and forgetful’, as old ‘Boomers’, with images of ‘their crossed and ageing hands’ reinforcing their vulnerability and lack of ‘agency, autonomy and independence’. Media reporting on older people often focuses on or ‘defaults’ to aged care, which while an important topic, means other important age topics are overlooked or absent from much of the media discourse. Attempts by the media to present positive portrayals of older persons often rely on ‘ageing superheroes’, such as an older person doing an extreme sport or getting a university degree at an advanced age, which reinforces a patronising view of older people and their capacities. Negative stereotypes of ageing, particularly of women and ageing, are instilled at an early age, for example, in children’s books featuring stories of ‘craggy, old, manipulative women’. Ageing women are seen as ‘almost an affront’ to society and ageing women’s bodies are seen as going against society’s deepest ‘values’ of ‘beauty and strength’. The most pernicious example of these biases was seen in reporting of COVID-19 deaths during the height of the pandemic, where the lives of older people were dehumanised and devalued, and their deaths portrayed as ‘normalised and acceptable’, implying that ‘collective relief’ should be felt as ‘only’ older people who ‘were going to die anyway’ were most impacted. ‘[we have all] internalised all those negative associations with getting older.’ Academics who disputed that ageism in the media was a meaningful problem conveyed various viewpoints including that: l l l l The worldview of older people still dominates and shapes stories and discourse in the media – and often in ways that are opposed to reform, for example, in relation to issues such as superannuation, tax and negative gearing or on current topics of discussion such as ‘problematic international students’. There are more important areas of ‘identity politics’ than age and pushed back against the notion of ‘identity politics’ more broadly. Younger people are affected far more than older people, both in the media and beyond, noting that it was not until recently that the economic difficulties experienced by younger generations were acknowledged by the media as ‘a genuine crisis’, with the media previously characterising younger people as lazy and incompetent. Older generations are more economically secure than younger generations and as a result ‘ageism is not as dominant’ because older people have become the prime audience for advertising. These academics conceded that there may be some unfortunate examples of older people being stereotyped in the media, such as for being greedy in their refusal to transfer wealth. However, they were of the view that these depictions were not pervasive or necessarily problematic for older people. 32 Shaping Perceptions: How Australian Media Reports on Ageing