Citation

Oostlander SA, Champagne-Poirier O, O'Sullivan TL. Int. J. Aging Hum. Dev. 2021; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, Baywood Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/00914150211024173

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

We conducted a constructivist grounded theory approach in which discourse analysis was used to explore how Canadian news media portrays older adults and aging in a disaster context. We analyzed 119 articles covering five Canadian disasters and identified four themes: (a) stereotypes of older adults are presented on a positive-negative continuum in journalistic coverage of disasters, (b) journalistic coverage tends to exclude perspectives of older adults from relevant discourse, (c) journalists assess the value of losses for older adults-"home" as a central concept, and (d) disasters are framed as disrupting retirement ideals. A model was created to provide an overview of the journalistic coverage of older adults in disaster contexts. Understanding how old age and aging are presented by the media in a disaster context is important because it has further implications for informing and structuring disaster risk reduction policies.

Language: en

Keywords

older adults; ageism; disasters; discourse; media