Images of Old Age in Television Drama Imported to Israel

Abstract

EMerly characters were numerous and rated positively on attributes of leadership, independence, and family functionality on imported TV programs shown in Israel.Hundreds of non-Western television stations broadcast the same programs imported from the U.S. and Europe (4). The characters portrayed on them, moreover, are drawn from one culture but may contribute to how people in other cultures perceive both Westerners and themselves. The process by which foreign media products are selected for importation has not received the attention it warrants, however. The selection of certain foreign programs and the exclusion of others may affect both the quantity and quality of the imagery viewed by the importing culture. We sought to analyze one particular type of imagethat of the elderly-presented on television programs imported to Israel.Portrayal of the elderly in U.S. media has been studied in magazine fiction (5), children's literature (13), jokes (8), television commercials (2), and television drama (1, 6,9, 14). Most studies have found the existence of a "cult of youth" or "cult of competence" accompanied by negative images of aged characters; other studies, however (9, 13), have found more positive images.To provide comparative data on the imported programming, we conducted an analysis of 562 television characters in all of the 46 dramatic programs broadcast for a total of 56 hours over single-channel Israel Television during seven weeks in April and May of 1977. Thirty-seven programs were imported from the United States, seven from England, and two from France. According to the Israel Broadcasting Authority, 55 to 85 percent of the general audience and 40 to 75 percent of the older audience (age 60 and over) watched these programs.

Media portrayals of older employees: a success story?

“…The same pattern was found in the fourth study on older characters in television drama broadcast in Israel (Shinar et al, 1980). The authors found that two-thirds of the older characters were shown in rather high status jobs, such as senior employee, professional or executive positions, or owner of small independent businesses.…”

The Portrayal of Older People in Television Advertisements: A Cross-Cultural Content Analysis of the United States and South Korea

“…Attributes were measured by using a 32-item scale of Rosencranz and McNevin's (1969) Aging Semantic Differential (ASD) scales, which were developed based on Osgood, Suci, & Tannenbaum's (1957) semantic differential scales. The Aging Semantic Differential (ASD) was developed to measure attitudes and quantify bias and negative stereotypes toward older people (Intrieri, von Eye, & Kelly, 1995;Rosencranz & McNevin, 1969;Shinar, Tomer, & Biber, 1980). Items have bipolar adjective pairs with seven response levels ranging from 1 to 7.…”

“…Many empirical studies have revealed underrepresentation of older people in the mass media. A content analysis of U.S. and European television dramas imported to Israel showed that people who are age 60 or older comprised 9.6% of the 562 characters analyzed (Shinar, Tomer, & Biber, 1980). This proportion was much less than that represented by other age groups, aged 50-59 (31.7%), 30-49 (38.4%), and 15-29 (20.3%).…”

“…However, there has been no clear consensus of criterion to define older people. While some studies defined older people as individuals who are 45 or older (Peterson, 1995;Peterson & Ross, 1997), others defined them as individuals who are over 50 years old (Carrigan & Szmigin, 1999), over 60 (Shinar, Tomer, & Biber, 1980), or over 65 (Haug, 1989;Rahtz, Sirgy, & Meadow, 1989). According to a study by the National Council on the Aging, Inc. (NCOA, 2002), people who are over 65 years old were defined as older people.…”