Senior in the social and media spaces. Examples of Visegrád Group countries

Senior in the social and media spaces Examples of Visegrád Group countries

Edited by

Katarzyna Jagielska Joanna M. Łukasik Norbert G. Pikuła

Kraków 2019

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© Copyright by Oficyna Wydawnicza „Impuls”, Kraków 2019 © Copyright by Uniwersytet Pedagogiczny im. Komisji Edukacji Narodowej, Kraków 2019

Reviewer: Prof. Dr. Remigijus Bubnys Šiauliai University, Lithuania

Proofreader: Justyna Kowalik

Desktop publisher: Katarzyna Kerschner

Cover design: Anna M. Damasiewicz

Cover photo: © Robert Churchill | Depositphotos.com

The publication was supported by Pedagogical University of Cracow.

The book was prepared within the projects: ‘Differentiation of old age images in mass media’ (BS-257/P/2019) and ‘Active aging in Poland and the EU’ (BS-260/P/2019) co-financed from funds to finance the statutory activity of the Pedagogical University of Krakow by Ministry of Science and Higher Education.

ISBN 978-83-8095-756-5 Oficyna Wydawnicza „Impuls” 30-619 Kraków, ul. Turniejowa 59/5 tel./fax: (12) 422 41 80, 422 59 47, 506 624 220 www.impulsoficyna.com.pl, e-mail: impuls@impulsoficyna.com.pl First edition, Kraków 2019

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Contents Introduction ....................................................................................................... 7 Mirosław Józef Szymański The image of old people in the changing society ........................................ 11 Andreas Hejj Hardly visible and depicted as dummies Seniors’ negative media presence and the dangerous dynamics of a self-fulfilling prophecy – the example of Hungary ............................. 21 Jiří Prokop Seniors and health in the Czech media ....................................................... 35 Lýdia Lehoczká, Anna Žilová, Milan Gergel Analysis of issues of the elderly in main television news programmes ........................................................................................ 45 Katarzyna Jagielska, Norbert G. Pikuła Portrayal of older people in the advertising in the Polish media .............. 69 Joanna M. Łukasik The image of senior citizens in Polish feature films ................................... 87 Sławomir Tobis, Sylwia Kropińska, Katarzyna Wieczorowska-Tobis Age discrimination in the healthcare sector .............................................. 97 Andrzej Zwoliński Being present at the moment of death. Polish experience ........................ 107

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Introduction Man living in the modern world is constantly exposed to changes: social, cultural, economic, technological, etc. According to Piotr Sztompka, the perceived changes concern primarily the transformations taking place in the organisation of the public life and in the patterns of thinking and acting in time; the modification or transformation of the way in which the society is organised; the variability of the relations between individuals, groups, organisations, cultures and communities taking place in time; transformations of behavioural patterns, social relations, institutions and the social structure in time (Sztompka, 2005, p. 22). Continuous changes are taking place in the social structure, as mentioned by Sztompka. This is visible, inter alia, in the phenomenon of population ageing which is common in many countries. The demographic changes confirm the fact of population ageing in the countries of the Visegrád Group, which is determined by the increased life expectancy as well as a drop in the birth rate.

Different effects and specific problems generated by the changes occur in different regions of the world depending on the existing economic, political and cultural conditions. These phenomena do not affect the course of people’s lives in the same manner, which is due to the differences concerning their places of residence, social, ethnic and cultural background, material resources or the age, i.e. the period of human development. The rate of the changes is of significant importance and specifically affects the seniors’ lives, i.e. the quality and the meaning of their lives. In Zygmunt Bauman’s opinion, the world of fluent modernity constantly surprises us; that which seems certain and at the right place today, may already tomorrow turn out to be a pathetic mistake, something vain and preposterous. […] We must be constantly prepared for changes (Bauman, 2011, pp. 5–7).

The Visegrád Group countries (Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia), which are not only brought together by the neighbourhood and similar geopolitical conditions but above all by common history, tradition, culture and values, react to changes in a similar way; likewise, the elderly living in

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Introduction

these countries experience changes differently to. It is namely so that old people, brought up and living in the traditional society where the individual was subordinated to social systems and norms, occupied specific social positions, performed specific roles fixed in the tradition and also in the strongly socially fixed system of values, are in many cases unable to find their place in the modern society experiencing constant changes. This, in turn, can lead to exclusion and marginalisation, both in the social and the media space. A person living and acting in the changing world is explicitly forced to constantly search for their place, priorities, meaning of life in the context of the omnipresent change being experienced. The question thus arises: What is the impact of these conditions on a senior having their habits, attitudes, beliefs and experiences of the traditional society for which there is less and less space in the modern world?

Elders, due to their age and changing social position, are often deprived of the opportunity to fully participate in the public life. Physical and psychological ailments affect the fact that seniors will be unwilling to take up various activities that would allow them to keep and make new acquaintances, further development and self-realisation. Withdrawal and social, cultural, political or economic marginalisation promote the occurrence of the conviction among seniors that they are socially useless. This leads to restricting their contacts and relations with the environment.

The elderly experience various consequences of their old age, both in the social and the psychological aspect. And their social position depends to a large extent on the image of old age functioning in a particular social and cultural community or in the media. Old age is not easy in many communities; negative opinions on seniors, a distorted image of old age created by the mass media all contribute to significant diminishing of the authority of the oldest generation and even lead to self-marginalisation. Diminishing the value of old age may lead to the conviction (also among the public) that life after reaching the retirement age does not have any meaning other than just the ‘struggle for survival’ or vegetation while waiting for the end. The functioning of the elderly in the social and media space is neither facilitated by the prevailing stereotypes of an old man. This is because they impose thinking of old age as a defeat, a life failure, a stage of life characterised by illness, disabilities, loneliness, helplessness or struggle to be young (a caricature of youth). The negative image of the elderly in the social and media space leads to the situation where an elderly person, with their wealth of experience and knowledge of life, seems unnecessary, redundant and unimportant. As a matter of fact, it is not so. The social and cultural change demands a new functioning of the place, roles and tasks of elderly people in the world. Hence, in order the change the face of old age,

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the manner of depicting it, the negative media image, educators, psychologists and sociologists aim their research and practical actions at changing the face of old age, at showing its positive image and presenting the positive aspects of this phase of life along with the entire wealth of experiences and achievements.

Likewise the media. Their main task with regard to this issue is to show, both to the seniors and the whole society, the actual problems experienced by elderly people, to show their capabilities and rights, and at the same time, to challenge the stereotypes functioning in the society as well as to prepare the recipients for a dignified old age.

The authors of this paper also set out to tackle these tasks. Researchers from the Visegrád Group countries, having common social, historical, economic and cultural experience, have embarked on a joint effort to recognise how the elderly are perceived in the social and the media space and within the context of different areas of functioning.

The collection of papers opens with a contribution by Mirosław J. Szymański, The image of an elderly person in a changing society. The author briefly describes how social changes and societies affected by such changes create over several decades the image of elderly people and what consequences this has for the functioning of the latter. This paper is an excellent introduction to the specific issues featured in the following ones as is shows the effects of the social changes that become visible in the image of elderly people, also this created by the media. And so, in the paper by Andreas Hejj, Hardly visible and depicted as dummies. Seniors’ negative media presence and the dangerous dynamics of a self-fulfilling prophecy – the example of Hungary, the author shows the hidden factors that contribute to the negative image of seniors as created by the Hungarian media. He makes reference to the theory of self-fulfilling prophecy and shows the consequences of the negative image, including the stereotypes perpetuated in the social consciousness. The next paper, by Jiří Prokop, Seniors and health in the Czech Media focuses on the issue of health in the perspective of elderly people’s appearances in commercials and also perceiving them as potential customers of the pharmaceutical industry for keeping fit, healthy and young (the perspective of the Czech experience). The issue of the presence of elderly people in the media is also raised by Lýdia Lehoczká, Anna Žilová and Milan Gergel in the paper Analysis of issues of the elderly in main television news programmes. The authors conducted an analysis of news programmes broadcast by Slovak television channels in order to recognise in what way, in what situations, circumstances information concerning older people is presented.

Similar aspects but with respect to Polish television commercials are analysed by the next authors, Katarzyna Jagielska and Norbert G. Pikuła in the paper

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Portrayal of older people in the Polish media. The media area of the analysis of the images of old age is concluded with the paper by Joanna M. Łukasik, The image of senior citizens in Polish feature films. The author conducted an analysis of the attitudes of elderly people, and thereby of old age as a stage in life, created in Polish feature films that deal with topics related to old age in which the leading roles are only played by actors at retirement age role. The special value of these analyses is that they bring out the positive image of elderly people by showing their internal motivation change and the actual change of attitudes towards themselves, the world and other people.

The next two papers reflect the social situation of the elders. Sławomir Tobis, Sylwia Kropińska and Katarzyna Wieczorowska-Tobis, in the paper Age discrimination in the healthcare sector, show the socially difficult situation of elderly people discriminated due to their age at health care facilities and with regard to their access to medical services. And Andrzej Zwoliński, in his contribution entitled Being present at the moment of death. Polish experience, addresses the issue of the elderly people’s dying moments and also of elderly people’s presence in such situations.

Scholarly research utilising the category of ‘social and media images of old age’, discussed in the perspective of social, cultural and other changes experienced by inhabitants of the Visegrád Group countries, opens new and cognitively valuable areas of theoretical analyses and shows the vast area of empirical studies. We express our hope that the contents presented in the compilation will become a source of inspiration to take up further research in the form of research projects that will enable a better recognition of the transformations in order to show their positive effects in building the image of elderly people.

Katarzyna Jagielska Joanna M. Łukasik Norbert G. Pikuła Krakow, on 15th February 2019

References Sztompka, P. (2005). Socjologia zmian społecznych [Sociology of social changes]. Kraków: Znak.

Bauman, Z. (2011). 44 listy ze świata płynnej nowoczesności [44 letters from the world of fluent modernity] (T. Kunz, Trans.) Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie.

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