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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Constructing ageing and age identities
— a case study of newspaper discourses | | Author(s) | Gerard Fealy, Martin McNamara, Margaret Pearl Treacy, Imogen Lyons |
| Journal title | Ageing and Society, vol 32, part 1, January 2012 |
| Pages | pp 85-102 |
| Source | http://www.journals.cambridge.org/aso |
| Keywords | Newspapers [publications] ; Ageism ; Ireland. |
| Annotation | This study investigated ageing and age identities in newspapers in Ireland. 227 newspaper articles concerned with welfare provision for older people were subjected to discourse analysis. Findings revealed that the use of phrases to name and reference older people positioned them as a distinct demographic group and ageism was discernible in texts that deployed collective names like 'grannies and granddads' and 'little old ladies'. Five distinct identity types were available in the texts, variously constructing older people as victims; frail, infirm and vulnerable; radicalised citizens; deserving old; and undeserving old. The discourses analysed placed older people outside mainstream Irish society. The idea that older people might be healthy, self-reliant and capable of autonomous living was largely absent in the discourses. The authors concluded that newspapers revealed social constructions of ageing and age identity that had consequences for the way that society behaves towards older people. (JL). |
| Accession Number | CPA-120326003 A |
| Classmark | UE:6H: B:TOB: 763 |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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