UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London, 7th Annual International Postgraduate Conference

Inclusion Exclusion

16-18th February 2006

Saturday 18 February 10:00 – 11:30: Panel H4: The Media Representation of Exclusion

Renáta Sedláková (University of West Bohemia): ‘Media as a tool of social exclusion: an example of the presentation of pensioners and old age in the Czech media’

The historically unprecedented ageing of the Czech population evokes a huge challenge for our society and all major social actors gradually centre their attention on it. Media – as the main transmitters of information in modern societies and actors in the social construction of reality – play a major role in the signification of the old age. Due to this the research concentrates on the interpretative sociological analysis of media representations of seniors and old age in Czech media. Media are actually some of the major actors that participate in the creation and structuring of our everyday reality and they help us overcome the uncertainty of surrounding events. But at the same time they can function as actors or factors contributing to the social inclusion or exclusion of the specific group of population about which they inform. And the case of seniors is increasingly important especially in the context of the up-to-date demographic changes in western societies. The paper presents the basic findings of large survey focused on the presentation of the old people/pensioners in the Czech media. The analysis concerns above all the news coverage of national television channels and important dailies. About 8 000 media messages from the calendar year 2004 were analysed by quantitative content analysis. The research addresses the question of whether the current media representations of old age and seniors are really stereotypical and distorted as researches on foreign media suggest. The paper introduces basic typology of information printed and broadcasted about older generation not only by serious but also by tabloid media. The research aims at exploring grand narratives about old age in Czech media, topics which are covered and the context within which seniors are placed in Czech media. Following main frames were identified: economy, criminality, tragedy, social problems, culture, health, human interest stories, demography, housing and politics. We tried to find the main features which characterize the image of seniors in the media and we found them mainly in the content embedding of the presented events and accentuated stereotypes about old age. The paper directs attention to the risks connected with such way of presentation that can leads to or deepen theirs social exclusion and disadvantages in the contacts with "mainstream" population. Especially by selection of such topics as are health and financial difficulties and impuissance and incompetence in the context of present style of life and modern technologies the media messages contribute to distorted view of young and middle generation on the old age and older people.