Aging, Media, and Communication

Abstract

The marked demographic change in industrialized countries has increased cross‐disciplinary interest in exploring understandings of aging on a social as well as individual level. Qualitative research in aging studies predominantly views aging as socially constructed. It therefore aims at gaining a better understanding of grand narratives of aging disseminated by powerful sociocultural agents in the media, the legal and political system, medical sciences, and academic institutions, of individual identity constructions in higher age and of how older people incorporate narratives of aging into their life‐course narratives. Neoliberal grand narratives of aging unfold within the binary of progress versus decline discourses. While representations linking aging to decline are characterized by a loss of control over mental and physical capabilities and resultant dependency on family, friends, or the state, the concept of successful aging is based on managing aging by staying autonomous, active, and youthful for as long as possible. Although the successful aging paradigm seems to support a positive view of aging, it not only reproduces gender hierarchies and heteronormativity but it also puts enormous pressure on those trying to meet the standards of successful aging and contributes to the marginalization of anyone who does not want or is not able to comply. An alternative to current sociocultural views of aging might be to approach aging outside of chronological homogenization and standardization and within the context of individual life‐course narratives in which each person constructs meaning, consistency and, ultimately, identity in one's life.

Changes in Social Communication as a Tool of Social Work under the Influence of Digitalization

“…The main media of communication are the press, television, radio, advertising, and the Internet. Television occupies a leading position among the mass media, and its influence is growing every year (Bühring, 2020;Greengrass, 2019;Sinclair, 2020). The results of a study conducted by the Institute of Sociology of the Academy of Sciences (2007) and the authors (2019) demonstrate that the priorities in the system of ways of spending free time among representatives of different generations change over time (Fig.…”