Gender Representations of Older People in the Media: What Do We Know and Where Do We Go from Here?

Despite the increase in the percentage of older people around the world, older people and particularly older women are quite underrepresented in the media. This article gives an overview of the representation of older women and men, starting with a short literature review showing that older women and men are nearly invisible in the worldwide media, and when represented, they are often depicted in negative ways. We show that such under- and misrepresentation should be taken seriously because media representations influence how older people regard themselves and how they are regarded by younger people. Based on this literature review, we identify several areas for future research on gender representations of older people to close the still existing gaps in the literature: Research that goes beyond (1) women and the gender binary, (2) lumping age groups together, (3) numerical representation, (4) content analysis, (5) traditional media, (6) single-country studies, and (7) academia.