Media Portrayal of Ageing: A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Media Discourses in Australia and Malaysia

Abstract

This study examines media discourses used in the portrayal of elderly people in Western and non-Western/Asian countries, namely Australia and Malaysia, which differ from each other in socio-cultural, religious, regional, and political perspectives. Mainstream newspapers from both countries are selected as a dataset to enable the language used by journalists in constructing identities for older people and an increasingly ageing population to be explored. It draws for its theoretical background on Fairclough’s three-dimensional critical discourse analysis to examine the link between text, discourse practice, and socio-cultural practice to understand the hidden meanings of media discourses. The main themes explored in Australian newspapers are (1) marketisation of aged care, and (2) politicisation of aged care. The marketisation of aged care is further divided into sub-themes (a) aged care as a commodity, and (b) the economics of aged care. The politicisation of aged care is branched as (a) quality of aged care, and (b) intergenerational wrangling. While, main themes explored in Malaysian newspapers around the care of elderly people are (1) family support – familism; (2) shift away from familism – detraditionalisation of aged care; and (3) social welfare – nursing homes. Journalists in both countries have discursively constructed identities for elderly people by making lexical choices in describing elderly people and issues related to them, reporting on certain angles of news story, prioritising certain news actors over others and making some voices louder than others. Identities constructed for elderly Australians directly or by implication in the sampled news articles are (a) users/consumers of aged care – affluent people; and (b) dependent – burden. (c) national/political identity and (d) relational/interpersonal identity. Main identities constructed – directly or by implication – for elderly people in Malaysian newspapers are (a) familial identities, (b) social identities, (c) financial identities, and (d) the elderly as victims.