The portrayal of elder abuse in the national media

Intimate Partner Violence in Late Life: An Analysis of National News Reports

“…Additionally, caregiver stress, alcohol use, and the poor health of the victim in general were frequently named as factors contributing to violence in late life. Reflecting the findings of earlier research (e.g., Beard & Payne, 2005) these results should be interpreted with caution, since media may give more space to sensational stories which feature an unambiguous crime (i.e., murder-suicide) than stories about other kinds of intimate partner violence.…”

“…We examined news stories collected by the National Center of Elder Abuse [NCEA] for prevalence and focus of IPV stories reported in the national print media. The media is influential in shaping people’s perceptions and public policy (Beard & Payne, 2005; Nerenberg, 2008), as it often selects and promotes news items that mirror the cultural values and interests of their readership. When relatively “invisible” and less palatable topics such as elder abuse are brought to public attention, the social biases and assumptions embedded in the reporting style influence the public’s response and future consideration of the issue.…”

“…Public awareness of elder abuse and IPV in particular is limited (Beard & Payne, 2005). Faith leaders interviewed about their perceptions of elder abuse in their community said that they would take action against elder abuse if they suspected it, but most felt a need for more information and educational materials (for themselves and congregants) concerning elder abuse and best practices for handling situations where they suspected abuse (Podnieks & Wilson, 2003).…”

A History of the Present: The Impact of Newspapers' Constructions of Maltreatment in an Irish Nursing Home

“…Only six published studies were located (Beard and Payne, 2005;Mastin et al, 2007;McNeely and Cook, 2007;Payne et al, 2008;Sharma Bhattarai, 2014;Jönson, 2016). Four studies were based on newspaper coverage in the United States (US) within one based in Nepal (Sharman Bhattari, 2014) and one in Sweden (Jönson, 2016).…”

“…Findings of the six studies indicated that only some types of elder abuse were reported and elder abuse was generally presented in the context of criminal justice as episodic editorials (those based on concrete events) rather than thematic events (those which were issue orientated) with particular people identified as morally responsible (Jönson, 2016). Such coverage has been termed 'news making criminology' (Barak, 1999) but more recently 'news making victimology' (Beard and Payne, 2005). Moreover, in reporting elder abuse, the US studies indicated that newspapers predominantly focused on the nursing home setting, although prevalence studies indicate that elder abuse is more common in the domestic setting (Phelan, 2009b) and newspaper reports from Nepal predominantly look at abuse outside of residential care.…”