Seminar: Aging from/inside the interior: media consumption and self-perception of old age

Program

Abstract

Covilhã is a territory located in the Central/Interior region of Portugal, divided between a young (though seasonal) population and an aging resident population. Distant from the country’s urban centers, the municipality presents aging rates above the national average and faces the challenges of a difficult reconciliation between these resident groups. The ongoing research project seeks to understand how media consumption by elderly residents in this context affects their self-perception of aging. Using both quantitative and qualitative approaches, we adopt ethnographic methods to conduct a reception study as a way to give voice and visibility to the diversity that constitutes this interpretive community. Through a questionnaire to characterize media consumption habits, field notes, focus groups, and in-depth interviews, we aim to understand how media representations of aging intersect with their lived experiences and shape the ways in which these individuals (re)interpret old age. Among the results already obtained, we found indicators that low levels of education and income constrain media consumption, but we also identified a diversity of experiences that reinforce the need to deepen our understanding of the contexts and the complexity/diversity of aging.

Elizângela Carvalho Noronha

Journalist by training, holds a PhD in Communication Sciences from the University of Coimbra, and is a postdoctoral researcher at the Catholic University of Portugal. Her research interests focus on the connections between Communication and media audiences, especially regarding the intersections of age and gender; the Feminist Political Economy of the Media and Journalism studies. She has been co-coordinator of the GMMP (Global Media Monitoring Project) in Brazil since 2020 and collaborates with research networks and groups in Europe and Brazil.