ELDERLY AND THE MEDIA

The population of people who are more than sixty-five years of age (often labeled "older adults") is estimated to grow to 37 million in the United States by 2015, an increase of 78 percent over the size of the population in the mid-1970s. As this age group expands, so does interest in the leisure activities and lifestyles of older adults. In part because watching television is the leisure activity that occupies the most time per week for older adults, media researchers have investigated the patterns and effects of media use in this age group.

Aging and Levels of Viewing

It is generally accepted that elderly adults watch more television than any other age group. According to Nielsen data, the average level of viewing among adults who are sixty-five years of age or older is between four and five hours per day—compared to two to three hours for younger adults. Although these comparisons seem relatively straightforward and uncontroversial, comparing averages in this way is a simplification that deserves further discussion.

First, viewing levels and the predictors of viewing are more variable among older adults than among younger age groups (Chayko, 1993). The average of five hours says relatively little about how much time most older adults spend watching television, whereas the average of two to three hours represents the viewing of the majority of younger adults. In fact, there are some older adults who watch for many hours a day, others who watch moderate amounts, and some who watch virtually no television at all.

Second, it is unclear what causes age differences in average levels of viewing. One of the most common explanations put forward by authors such as Robert Bower (1985) is that elderly adults watch more television because they have the time and opportunity. That is, most people watch as much as they are able, and elderly adults are able to watch more because they are more likely to be retired. A similar argument proposed by Alan Rubin and Rebecca Rubin (1982) is that elderly adults watch television because it fills needs created by retirement and increasing infirmity, such as information, companionship, and entertainment. Both of these accounts are maturational explanations. That is, age differences in viewing are assumed to reflect the life events of individuals such as getting a job, getting married, having children, and retiring.

James Danowski and John Ruchinskas (1983) have an alternative explanation: Maybe individuals remain relatively constant in amount of television viewing across the life span, but earlier generations watch more than recent generations. Those early generations watch more because television became widely available when they were in their midlife peak of purchasing power and interest in new technologies. According to this account, cross-sectional comparisons (e.g., between young, middle, and older adults) that seem to find age differences, really reveal variation between generations.

Various studies have been conducted using large-scale national data sets to try to resolve these issues, with inconsistent results. Clearly, age, generation, and time of measurement all play roles in determining viewing levels, but the relative sizes of the roles vary by the country in which viewing was measured and by the way in which viewing was measured (e.g., single-item versus multi-item measures; preelection viewing versus overall television viewing).

What Do Older Adults Watch?

The most striking characteristic of the viewing habits of older adults is how heavily they are dominated by factual (rather than fictional) content. In numerous surveys conducted between 1970 and 1999 (e.g., Goodman, 1990), older adults reported that their favorite content consisted of news, documentaries, public affairs programming, and game shows. According to ratings information from the Simmons Market Research Bureau in 1991, adults over sixty-five were the largest single audience for local and network prime-time news. Although older adults were less likely to have cable television than younger age groups, when they did have cable they formed the largest audience for community access programming.

Of course, there are important variations in viewing by subgroups of elderly adults. For example, in a survey by Norbert Mundorf and Winifred Brownell (1990), elderly males listed sporting events among their favorite content, and elderly women listed soap operas and dramas. John Burnett (1991) also reported differences based on income. Affluent older adults were more likely (than the less-affluent older adults) to have cable and to report watching premium cable channels, CNN, and PBS. Less-affluent older adults were more likely (than the more-affluent older adults) to report watching prime-time movies, late-night reruns, and religious programs.

Why should nonfictional content form such a large part of the television diet of older adults? Older adults, like younger adults, report that their primary motive for watching television is to be entertained, so, on the face of it, their emphasis on nonfictional content is surprising. One explanation may be that fictional content often contains sexual and violent material. In a number of surveys, older adults reported finding such material offensive. Although news programming also contains high levels of violence, older adults may perceive it as less gratuitous.

Another explanation for the emphasis on non-fictional programming may be that the majority of characters in fictional television content are young (as discussed below), and therefore the plots of fictional content typically revolve around concerns and issues related to young adults. There is some evidence that older adults prefer to see older characters both in fictional and factual content if given the opportunity. Jake Harwood (1997) analyzed the age distribution of characters in the top ten prime-time Nielsen-rated shows for ages two to eleven, eighteen to fifty-four, and over sixty-five. He reported that all viewer age groups watched a television population of leading characters that was skewed in favor of their own age, even overrepresented compared to their presence in the real-world population. There was the same, somewhat weaker, pattern for supporting characters. In an experimental examination of age-based preferences for content, Marie-Louise Mares and Joanne Cantor (1992) gave older adults synopses of nonfictional television programs that varied in terms of the age of the main characters. When asked to rate how much they would like to see each program, the respondents gave higher ratings to programs featuring older characters.

Other Media Use

Older adults spend less time listening to the radio (typically between one and two hours per day) than do younger adults. James Robinson and Tom Skill (1995) suggested that age differences in time spent listening may be explained by the fact that most people listen to the radio while they are working and driving—and older adults tend to spend less time at these activities. According to ratings information from the Simmons Market Research Bureau in 1991, older adults listened to country music, talk radio, news, and nostalgia programming, generally on daytime AM rather than FM stations. They were significantly more likely to listen to news or talk radio than were young adults. Burnett (1991) found that, as with television, gender and financial status played a role in favorite radio content. More-affluent older adults preferred easy-listening music, whereas less-affluent older adults listened to country music, gospel music, and religious programming. Men were much more likely than women to listen to radio sports programming.

Newspaper reading increases with age, until age sixty-five—when it starts to decrease slightly (presumably partly due to vision impairments associated with aging). Overall, adults who are more than fifty-five years of age are significantly more likely to read one or more newspapers per day than are younger adults. As with television viewing, it is probable that cross-sectional comparisons of averages reflect generational as well as aging effects, and that earlier generations spent more time reading newspapers than more-recent generations.

Portrayals of the Elderly on Television

James Robinson and Tom Skill (1995) conducted a content analysis of prime-time network fictional programming aired in 1990. Their results replicated two decades of reports by researchers such as George Gerbner on portrayals of age on television. First, Robinson and Skill reported that elderly adults continued to be underrepresented on television, compared to real-world demographics. Less than 3 percent of characters were sixty five years of age or older (that is, 34 characters out of a total of 1,446). Moreover, only 3 of the older adults shown were major characters (9 percent of older characters compared to 19 percent for the total sample). Nearly 90 percent of older characters were white; the remainder were African American. There were no Latino or Asian-American adults over sixty-five years of age.

Prior research reports had indicated that older male characters tended to outnumber older female characters. Robinson and Skill found that among characters who were sixty-five years of age or older, women outnumbered men, reflecting real-world demographics. However, among characters who were between fifty and sixty-four years of age, there were nearly three times as many men as women. Men who were more than fifty years of age were more likely than older women to be depicted as married rather than widowed or divorced, and were depicted as more financially secure. Finally, adults who were more than fifty years of age were much more likely than younger adults to be shown as having a religious affiliation.

Robinson and Skill did not report on more qualitative aspects of the portrayals. Research conducted during the 1970s by George Gerbner and his associates (1980) reported that elderly characters were often portrayed as foolish and eccentric and that they were typically comedic figures who were not treated with respect or courtesy.

Effects of Age Depictions on Younger Viewers

If old age is accorded such little attention and respect on television, what effect does this have on the younger viewers' images of old age? Unfortunately, much of the existing research is dated and merely involves comparing attitudes toward aging among viewers who watched heavy amounts of television and viewers who watch light amounts. Overall, though, the research suggests that television viewing perpetuates stereotypes about old age.

Gerbner and his associates (1980) reported that people who watched a heavy amount of television were more likely than similar groups of people who watched a light amount of television to think that older people were not open-minded, adaptable, alert, or good at getting things done. They also believed that the proportion of older people in the population was declining, that older people were less healthy than previous generations of older adults, and that people were not living as long as they did in the past. The relationship between viewing and negative stereotypes of old age was strongest for those who were between eighteen and twenty-nine years of age. Finally, people who watched a heavy amount of television perceived "old age" as beginning sooner (i.e., at fifty-one years of age) than people who watched a light amount of television, who, on average, thought that old age began at fifty-seven years of age. Moreover, a higher proportion of people who watched a heavy amount of television agreed that women become "old" before men do.

Effects of Age Depictions on Older Viewers

Felipe Korzenny and Kimberly Neuendorf (1980) surveyed older adults and reported that those who viewed for escape reasons also tended to have relatively negative images of themselves. Although the direction of causality could not be determined from this survey, the authors suggested that television viewing contributed to negative self-concepts because of the infrequent but stereotypical images of old age. Other research suggests that the results of viewing are more complex.

One reason for the complexity is that, as Har-wood (1997) reported, older adults (like all age groups) are adept at finding images of their own age group on television. A second reason is that older adults often have more-positive perceptions of the portrayals of old age than do communication researchers. Elliot Schreiber and Douglas Boyd (1980) reported that the elderly adults in their sample generally thought that elderly characters in television commercials were positively portrayed. Similarly, Richard Hofstetter and his colleagues (1993) found that 80 percent of their elderly sample disagreed that television news portrayed older adults less favorably than younger adults. Between 60 percent and 70 percent disagreed that talk shows and television dramas had less-favorable portrayals of old age than of youth. Moreover, people who watched more television overall, and more news in particular, had more-positive perceptions of portrayals of old age. The subset of respondents who perceived unfavorable stereotyping in television content were generally those who were less physically able, were less mobile, and were more depressed. That is, those who had reason to be dissatisfied with their own aging were more sensitive to negative images of aging on television.

It is not surprising that many elderly adults focus on the few salient positive portrayals of old age and choose to disregard the less-favorable portrayals. John Bell (1992) examined the title sequences of five prime-time programs that were most popular with older audiences in 1989 (Murder She Wrote, Golden Girls, Matlock, Jake and the Fatman, and In the Heat of the Night). These programs all featured elderly characters portrayed as powerful, affluent, active, admired, and often quite physically attractive. The characters were mentally competent, often solving mysteries that puzzled younger adults.

Even when older adults do see negative images of old age, the effects may not be uniformly negative. Mares and Cantor (1992) found that older adults may sometimes use portrayals of old age to provide information about how well they are faring relative to other people their age. In their study, lonely older adults reported feeling better after they watched a documentary about a sad, socially isolated man, possibly because the program allowed them to reassess their situation and decide that they were doing relatively well. In contrast, other lonely older adults continued to feel sad after watching a version of the documentary in which the old man was depicted as happy and socially integrated, possibly because the program made their own situation seem sorrier by comparison. Nonlonely adults responded more empathically to the two versions, feeling worse after seeing the sad man and remaining positive after seeing the happy man.

Conclusion

Emotional responses to portrayals of old age are not homogeneous. As always, it is important to note differences by subgroups of older adults, rather than assuming that the population of people who are more than sixty-five years of age is an undifferentiated group.

See also:Cultivation Theory and Media Effects; News Effects.

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Marie-Louise Mares