Passivity and exclusion: media power in the construction of the aged-care debate in Australia and Malaysia

ABSTRACT

This article explores relationships between media power and older people in Western and non-Western settings, utilising the examples of Australia and Malaysia. Drawing on Fairclough’s three-dimensional critical discourse analysis and a dataset of articles from Australian and Malaysian newspapers, it reveals that despite differences in journalistic practices in the two countries there is a common thread of disparate representation of voices of older people and elites in news about older people. This demonstrates the exercise of power by journalists – and the influence of broader media and socio-political environments – in sustaining and reproducing social inequalities, including opportunities for people to have their stories and issues portrayed fairly and accurately. While the lack of critical engagement by Malaysian journalists can be linked to social norms and ideas of Asian-based development journalism, the absence of critical engagement from the Australian news media can be seen as conflicting with their Fourth Estate watchdog role.

KEYWORDS:

• Media power
• development journalism
• Malaysia
• Australia
• fourth estate
• aged care

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. While the United Nations prefers the term ‘older persons’, the terms ‘older people’, ‘older person’, and ‘elderly people’ are used interchangeably in this article to reflect the variety of terms in common public-sphere usage.

2. Ownership switched from Fairfax to Nine in 2018, meaning that the newspapers included in this study were part of the Fairfax group during the sampling period.