‘The other’ of the COVID-19 pandemic: ageism toward the elderly people in newspapers in Brazil and Chile

Abstract

The emergence of the new coronavirus and the indication of the elderly population as a risk group led to the emergence of speeches, jokes, memes and  facts indicative of ageism in social media and mass  media. This article aims to analyze the expressions  and implications of ageism toward the elderly reported in newspapers in Brazil and Chile in the first  year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Documentary study  of news from newspapers with the greatest access in  Brazil and Chile. Data collection occurred in May 2021. The selection of titles, abstracts and full text was  performed by two independently and blinded researchers. The final corpus of 89 news was  submitted to thematic analysis supported by the  MAXQDA software, whose codification, thematization  and interpretation process was based on sociological  theories that explain ageism. The expressions of  ageism were evidenced through images and attitudes  that devalue and depreciate the life of the elderly  people, positioning them as ‘the other’ of the  pandemic, which has implications for the life, health  and work of this population.