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Diversity and age stereotypes in portrayals of older adults in popular American primetime television series

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 April 2020

Čedomir Markov Open the ORCID record for Čedomir Markov [Opens in a new window]  and
Youngmin Yoon Open the ORCID record for Youngmin Yoon [Opens in a new window]
Čedomir Markov
Affiliation:
Department of Media & Communication, Korea University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
Youngmin Yoon*
Affiliation:
School of Media & Communication, Korea University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
*
*Corresponding author. Email: ymyoon@korea.ac.kr
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Abstract

To examine the prevalence and diversity of older adults on primetime television, and age stereotyping in these portrayals, we analysed the contents of 112 episodes of popular American television series aired between 2004 and 2018. We identified 6.6 per cent of characters as aged 65 and older – a slight improvement to the values reported in previous studies. However, older adult characters are still grossly under-represented, considering the actual proportion of older adults in the general population of the United States of America. Further, the typical older character was young-old, male, Caucasian, middle-class, able-bodied and straight – if his sexuality was referenced. Older women still face double discrimination in media representations. In addition, older adult characters with ethnicities other than Caucasian and African American are virtually invisible in primetime fiction series. Similarly, old-old characters, sexual minorities and persons with disabilities are particularly rare among older adult characters in this type of programming. Finally, portrayals of 51.9 per cent of characters included at least some elements of age stereotypes, most of which were positive. The most commonly applied positive and negative stereotypes were found to be the golden ager and the shrew, respectively. The findings are discussed in the context of the dominant discourse of ageing and the potential implications of how various social groups perceive ageing and older adults.

Keywords

media portrayalprimetime televisionolder adultsdiversityage stereotypes
Type
Article
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 41 , Issue 12 , December 2021 , pp. 2747 - 2767
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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