Call for papers: Growing old with and via media

MedieKultur vol. 33, no. 63

Submission deadline: November 1st, 2016

Publication: Fall 2017

Guest editors: Anne Leonora Blaakilde, al@blaakildes.net, University of Copenhagen; Monika Wilińska, Monika.Wilinska@ju.se, Jönköping University

Issue editor: Sara Mosberg Iversen, siv@sdu.dk, University of Southern Denmark

"Media researchers hate old people” claims the polemic title of an article by Norwegian media scholar Trine Syvertsen (2010). We will not go so far as to suggest that, but do, on the other hand, maintain that older men and women and their media-related practices as well as the mediated representations of old age deserve much more research interest from Media and Communication Studies than they currently get. This is particularly relevant given the growing diversity of media uses and practices on the one hand, and the intensification of public discourses regarding the expected ways of ageing, if not non-ageing, in contemporary socio-economical, political and cultural domains. Therefore, it is crucial to examine these changes as processes that are intertwined. This will facilitate a better understanding of the ways old age is approached in contemporary media texts, technologies, institutions and practices as well as how media in various ways contribute to shaping, managing and negotiating old age both as representations, policy issues and as experiences and practices of everyday life. 

In this issue of MedieKultur, we want to explore the processes and practices of growing old with and through media. The particular focus is on the following two questions:

1)    How do media texts and institutions contribute to the maintenance and negotiations of different notions of ageing?

2)    What are the multiple roles of media technologies in old age today in terms of, for instance, memory work, self-monitoring, the rhythm of everyday life, or continuity between work life and retirement among diverse groups of older men and women?

MedieKultur invites theoretical, methodological and empirical inquiries into the interplay between contemporary notions and practices of ageing and media technologies, institutions and texts. Topics and themes for articles can include but are not limited to:

- (The changing) media representations of ageing and old age within diverse media genres.

- Older men and women’s media practices in everyday life or as seen from a life course perspective.

- Media policies related to old age and the ways these are co-constructing notions and practices of ageing.

- Uses of media technologies and applications in the management of old age, for instance as technologies of domination or self.

- Expressions of ageism, that is discrimination or prejudices due to chronological age, in media content, technologies or production.