GOOD PRACTICES IN ACTIVE AGEING

Studies have shown that seniors are considered as a useless and unproductive marginal group. The negative stereotypes fed by society and seniors themselves can decrease the capacity of adaptation and have a serious impact on health and quality of life. That’s why our responsibility consists in fighting against senior discrimination.

From this reflection, a group of UPUA researchers and students proposed the performance of this project. The UPUA students, under the coordination of experts in various fields, will investigate the image of seniors given by the arts and media, analyze that image and compare it to their own perception of reality. Finally, they will act accordingly.

The Permanent University of the University of Alicante launched the Permanent Seminar of Analysis “SENIORS AND THE MASS MEDIA” in 2005, with a view to focus its work in observation. This seminar worked through research groups composed by older people that tracked the Spanish media reality with a focus on the treatment of seniors in the media.  

This seminar raised a series of reflections amidst teachers, researchers and assistants of the Permanent University that centered around the necessity of addressing the analysis from the seniors’ perspective, that does not always match with the one proposed by the media. This launched the workshop called “Seniors and the mass media: the treatment of a presence”, coordinated by the teaching collaborators of the Permanent University Fernando Embid Fernández and Mª Dolores Berenguer Ros. This project has been boosted with infrastructure resources, academic and administrative aid that allow the support and tracking of the initiative.

In this good practice, seniors themselves are researchers-researched, because each student group is coordinated by a greater-coordinator-student that in turn is the coordinator of each and every different field and the one in charge of collecting data. These data are given to the teacher tutor that fosters debates, feedback and the statistical method of analysis. Conclusions are later used to draw strategies of action in that field.

The seminar takes place through an entire academic year, from October to June. Physical presence in classroom is required fortnightly: a meeting of two and a half to three hours every fifteen days to share the data collected by each group, clarify doubts, make debates and pool the extracted data used to broadcast and publish as a social action and example of active citizenship.
Having at our disposal teacher tutors that are experts in every thematic field allows data to be reviewed under an interdisciplinary dimension. Thus, having assistance from journalism, sociology or statistics’ experts allows this workshop to obtain a specialized dimension. 

The participants, from eight to ten in each course, range between 26 and 80 years. This initiative also incorporates students from UA official degrees of sociology, marketing, advertising and social work, making this project a project between generations.

The endeavor of the Observatory has provided data that allow opening a debate about the image that society gets of this group. The data were obtained mainly by analysis of advertisements, press and radio as consumers and consumption promoters. National TV fiction was also examined as narrators and target audience.

As a result of this, we can name the writing of a MANIFESTO, some articles, participation in a forum, the creation of the blog “Seniors and the mass media” in 2008 and also the Radio between Generations, “No radio for old people” inside the University Radio, offering a one-hour biweekly programme.

In 2009 the Conferences “XXI century social challenges: seniors and the mass media” were organized. Amongst the 130 attendants were technicians and academic managers from University Programmes for older adults, media managers, companies and professionals of social work and mediation and a large number of older students.
Members of the Observatory also took part in the presentation “Breaking Old Stereotypes” with an audiovisual contribution to the breakdown of the seniors’ negative image reflected by society and the media. They also publish articles in the press and in senior specialized media.
The Permanent University of the University of Alicante has organized some conferences to show the initiative to other interested institutions and to the general public. It has also exported this initiative to other universities and elderly groups that have put it into practice. The data obtained from observation are of informative nature, thus enhancing the visibility of the initiative.

Country: SPAIN
Entity: PERMANENT UNIVERSITY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ALICANTE

Phone number: 00 34 965 90 97 93 / 00 34 965 90 94 54
Email: upua.internacional@ua.es; irene.ramos@ua.es
Contact person: Irene Ramos Soler


Related links

Link to the European Year for Active Ageing and Solidarity between Generations’ web