Perceptions of Older Adults and Children in Disaster Reporting
Julia Shanta, Online, Staff Writer
April 2nd, 2023
News media around disaster reporting lacks a crucial holistic voice, one that is seen via the exclusion of older adults and children from disaster reporting, but also via the tendency by news reporters to stereotypically portray these groups as wholly passive, rather than as active participants in disaster risk reduction strategies. This problem becomes more important as the frequency of disasters is said to increase substantially in the near future.
On Monday, March 20th, “the IPCC released a report indicating a warming of about 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial temperatures by 2030”. This raises concerns around our collective ability to respond to environmental disasters, as scientists warn that future disasters may far surpass our current capacity to respond to crises, and may in fact happen too quickly for our technology and resources to adequately adapt.
Today, it is clear that disasters are becoming much more frequent. Whether as a result of climate change or as a result of human error, it’s no surprise there is a recent influx of news media surrounding disaster-related information. A paper for the International Journal of Aging and Human Development defined “news media that communicate disaster-related information as influenced by the nature of the problem and how viewers interact with the context - the issue attention cycle”. They argue that the style and type of media coverage can actually “impact the social construction of resilience and vulnerability, which can further influence disaster risk reduction (DRR) practices.” Particularly relevant when considering high-risk populations, which may include older adults, people with disabilities or ailments, and children and babies.
Despite the relatively recent global push to combat ageism in disaster reporting, coverage surrounding the recent earthquake paints a rather different, more inadvertently, ageist picture. In a report by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction in 2016, they cited a disproportionate exclusion of older adults in disaster planning and management, noting that instances of reduced mobility in older adults makes fleeing disaster hotspots more difficult, therefore, the plan should adequately reflect and anticipate these issues.
While this urgency carries with it an inherent truth, it also can’t help but reinforce cultural and stereotypical notions of older adults as either wise beyond their years, or vulnerable and in need of adequate support. In fact, the tendency to group older adults by age rather than stage indicates a misstep in our overall global approach to tackling issues faced by older adults.
A recent example of this can be seen through observing the recent coverage surrounding the earthquake in Turkey on February 6th, 2023. Big picture observations either indicate a rather polarized conception of aging or an overall absence of older adults from the overall picture. Many defer to compassionate ageism, which is based on the idea that older adults are unable to take care of themselves, that they are victims, and that they need support. Though, others speak to age as the fountain of experience and wisdom, speaking to older adults as those who are somehow more resilient as a result of their age. As a whole, the portrayal of older adults indicates that vulnerability is assumed and/or expected. Likewise, the portrayal of children and adolescents carries a similar rhetoric. The VOA wrote this, in a recent article titled ‘Turkish Quake Victims Sleep in Trains, Tents and Greenhouses’:
“I couldn't find anything like a tent for the first three or four days," said Haci Kose, a father of three.”
"Our house has become unusable. We can't get into it," said Nida Karahan, 50, whose family of five was living in a cream-and-red-painted carriage. "The wagons have become our home.”
It’s not inherently wrong or bad, the tendency to emphasize visible and/or perceived areas of vulnerability. However, it’s important to note that the style of framing, through the use of descriptor words, not only seems to have little relevance on the status of homelessness but seems to add nothing of value to the point the author is trying to make. Rather, the inclusion of such descriptor words play a heuristic value, playing into cultural and stereotypical assumptions that depict children and older adults as dependent, vulnerable and passive in disaster circumstances, when compared to the news portrayal depicting their adult counterparts.
There even exists a global push by organizations like the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs UNOCHA to overemphasize children and older adults under the total number of people affected, despite the word “people” being an all-encompassing, holistic, term.
“The earthquakes struck at the peak of winter, leaving hundreds of thousands of people – including small children and elderly people – without access to shelter, food, water, heaters and medical care in freezing temperatures.”
While compassionate ageism and the over emphasis of age (old or young) in disaster reporting is undoubtedly problematic, the opposite is also true. The complete exclusion of older adults and young people as active participants in commentary around disaster resolution and management is not only prevalent, but widely present. Despite vulnerability in certain areas (financial and physical), vulnerability cannot be equated with passivity, as children and older adults are by no means passive agents in disasters. Rather, what is evident is that this type of polarized news reporting not only paints an inaccurate and incomplete picture of the disaster experience but speaks to a tendency by the media to utilize descriptor words to further emphasize vulnerability, and to draw pity and support through readership. Providing voices of active experiences, within and among older adults and children is a next step that news-media should aim to draw towards. What is clear is that children and older adults are far more resilient and active in DRR practices than what is portrayed in mainstream cultural belief. More so, within these groups encompasses people at vastly different stages of life, with people ranging from 0-15 considered a child or baby and with adults 50 and above considered as an older adult. As such, we must not only urge news media to be more comprehensive, but we should collectively utilize active thinking in order to bring a more realistic and comprehensive picture of disaster management to news, policy and mainstream cultural rhetoric.
Sources:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/03/20/climate-change-ipcc-report-15/
https://www.undrr.org/news/fighting-ageism-disasters
https://www.voanews.com/a/turkish-quake-victims-sleep-in-trains-tents-greenhouses-/6968490.html