Ageism and perceptions of vulnerability: Framing of Age during the during the Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Media representations of the Covid-19 pandemic and its devastating consequences have shaped people’s fears, anxiety, and perceptions of vulnerability. Social scientists have examined the consequences of how information is “framed.” Framing theory asserts that issues can be portrayed differently by emphasizing or de-emphasizing aspects and information. According to Lakoff (2004) the impact of a message is not based on what is said but how it is said. Theories of framing focus on how the media frames issues, which then structure and shape attitudes and policies. A news article serves as a frame for an intended message. This paper examines the ways that “age” has been framed during the Covid-19 pandemic. One of the most dominant frames in terms of COVID-19 coverage is how the pandemic has been analyzed through the lens of age and framed in terms of age discrimination. The results of news articles appearing in several prominent newspapers indicate that the perceptions of elders and their vulnerabilities to severe consequences from Covid-19 are likely to help perpetuate or create age discrimination.

Ageism on Twitter during the COVID‐19 pandemic

“…As coverage on COVID‐19 continues to dominate the headlines, messages propagated by the media should be crafted more tactfully in order not to be inimical to ongoing calls to reframe aging (Busso et al., 2019 ; Jarrott et al., 2019 ; Ng, 2021a ; Ng & Indran, 2022d ; Sweetland et al., 2017 ). Besides ensuring that older persons are not constantly singled out as a homogeneous entity, inclusive terms such as “we” and “us” should be used to avoid perpetuating an “us versus them” mindset (Berridge & Hooyman, 2020 ; Schnell et al., 2021 ). This will replace the existing narrative from one of COVID‐19 as a virus that older adults must be protected from to one that sees the pandemic as a broader issue which society can overcome as a collective (Xiang et al., 2021 ).…”

The impacts of pandemic-related media coverage on workplace ageism among younger hospitality and tourism employees

“…However, limited H&T research has investigated attitudes toward the older workforce, especially in the post-pandemic era. This is an important period to investigate age-group dynamics and attitudes at the workplace, because the COVID-19 pandemic was disproportionally framed by the media from an ageist perspective (Schnell et al , 2021). Drawing on the media priming theory and the TMT, the present study builds an integrated research model to predict the underlying mechanism through which younger H&T workers’ media-induced reactions affect their willingness to work with their older counterparts.…”

“…grandparents) with which younger employees can resonate. In addition, H&T practitioners are suggested to use more inclusive language (Schnell et al , 2021), such as “we” rather than “they.” This change could make younger employees feel that they are working toward a common goal with older people together.…”

“…According to the TMT, older people may represent tangible threats to young people, because the former compete for finite resources, power and influence and opportunities in society (Spaccatini et al, 2022). During the pandemic, older people were repeatedly mentioned in the news as competing for scarce medical resources and susceptible to sickness (Schnell et al, 2021). These negative images may remind younger H&T employees that their older colleagues are competing for resources at the workplace.…”

“…During the pandemic, older people were mostly stereotyped in negative lights. Cognitively, they were often portrayed as frailer physically, more socially isolated, less able to work or contribute to society and more dependent on younger generations to protect them (Schnell et al , 2021). Emotionally, older people were largely associated with negative emotions such as fear, sadness and anger (Metzler et al , 2021; Renström and Bäck, 2021).…”