5.4 Corporate communications practitioners (a) It is the culture, and it is easy The two corporate communications practitioners interviewed for this research identified ageism in the media as a product of ingrained societal norms in mainstream Australian culture, noting that ‘Australia is not a place that values older people.’ It was observed that while ‘some cultures deeply respect their elders,’ Australia is not one of those cultures. There was a perception that to become old in Australia is to become ‘invisible,’ driven and characterised by a loss of economic utility and value. Older workers were seen to ‘cost more’ and therefore ‘they want you out.’ ‘Intersectionality,’ where age is overlayed with other characteristics like race or gender, was also recognised as a factor that can worsen the implications of ageism. Entrenched ageism in Australian culture was seen to make stereotypical portrayals of age an ‘easy story,’ resulting in a media landscape where older people were either pitied or reviled, and their strengths or values ignored. The interviewees highlighted two prevalent age stereotypes in media portrayals. The first was ‘frailty,’ where older people are seen as vulnerable, incompetent, incapacitated, impaired and despondent. ‘It’s always someone frail on a walker, with a cup of tea and a biscuit,’ someone who ‘doesn’t know what’s what,’ in short ‘a portrayal of weakness.’ The second was ‘intergenerational conflict,’ where older people are portrayed as selfish wealth hoarders, who are no longer contributing to the progress of the economy or society and ‘stopping others from getting a look in.’ Concerns were raised about the ‘social discord’ this type of narrative creates. (b) Alignment with business values and drivers The interviewees, who worked in the superannuation and private health insurance sectors respectively, asserted that the communication practices of their organisations do not replicate the age stereotypes they see in the broader media landscape. They attributed this difference to two key factors. The first is a broader recognition in corporate communications of the importance of diverse representations and that age is an important factor in diversity. However, within this context, it was acknowledged that age must compete with what are considered ‘higher order equity issues’ such as gender and disability. The second is a recognition of the business imperative and benefits of more accurate representations of older Australians. As one interviewee commented, ‘[i]t’s our business to know things about our customers’ and hence there is a focus on ensuring representations accurately reflect and are ‘true’ to older or younger customers. There is a conscious effort to avoid stereotypes that could lead to ‘discord’ and ‘alienation’ of customers and that this conscious, deliberate approach is ‘embedded in what we do.’ ‘We think about it more overtly.’ It is clear that when business values and drivers align, more positive representations of age/ageing are possible. However, despite this ‘overt’ thinking, the interviewees could not point to any source of expertise or guidance on what is good or best practice in this space. Though they had undergone disability awareness training, they had no knowledge of equivalent training for age or ageism. (c) Age bias in the workplace The interviewees observed that although they had not personally experienced ageism or age discrimination in their careers, there was a relative absence of older workers within their organisations – ‘we’re all under 45.’ While these interviewees did not attribute this to the existence of age discrimination against older workers, the interviewees admitted that there was a very clear ‘skew’ in their workforces. Qualitative interviews 35