Images of old age in YouTube: destabilizing stereotypes

Abstract

This article presents an analysis of the most viewed YouTube videos under the labels ‘old age’, ‘older age’ and ‘senior citizens’. As powerful sources that transmit cultural information which either perpetuates or undermines cultural stereotypes at a worldwide level, channels of information such as YouTube offer a valuable glimpse at those images of ageing and old age which are shared and consumed by nowadays viewers. This study offers an analysis of the representations of older people as well as the contexts in which they appear taking into account previous studies which focused on the representation of older people in media. The results reveal a broadly positive representation of older people, with the majority of the videos portraying a counter-stereotypic image of this age group. This overall trend represents an interesting and destabilizing path that strengthens the efforts pursued against ageism and age discrimination in our societies.