Deconstructing media discourse of successful aging from the perspective of critical gerontology.

While the determinants of successful aging receive much attention from researchers, few studies in Canada and elsewhere have considered the newspaper portrayals of seniors who do or not age well. Yet the mass media constitute a significant component of the social context in which aging is experienced and understood. To make meaning of aging and its various experiences, and to transmit them from one generation to the next, the society draws on various cultural and media products such as novels, films, paintings, and media texts and images. Through thematic analysis of 146 articles featuring older adults in various contexts including family, work, civic engagement, social policy, health care, consumer market, and leisure published in The Globe and Mail in 2004-2006, this paper deconstructs stereotypes of successful aging. Findings from this study suggest that media discourses of successful aging perpetuate exclusion of marginalized adults and provide the cultural legitimization for persistent social inequalities in terms of gender, class, age, and health status. This paper sheds light on intra-generational media ageism whereby some older adults, particularly older women, are blamed for failing to age well, while the structural determinants of late-life disadvantage are made invisible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]