Mitigating Visual Ageism in Digital Media: Designing for Dynamic Diversity to Enhance Communication Rights for Senior Citizens

Abstract

This paper advocates for the importance of visual communication rights for older people to avoid “visual ageism,” described as media practices of visually underrepresenting older people or misrepresenting them in a prejudiced way. It aims to present a set of policy recommendations using “designing for dynamic diversity” as the leading principle. By discussing studies about the ways older people are visual represented in digital media content, the paper shows how visual communication rights for older people could help to fight “visual ageism.” It also pleads for collaborative ways to create digital visual content “together with” older people and not “for” them. Moreover, the paper makes a plea for empowering senior citizens by advocating their right of having a voice about the manner in which they are visually represented and enhancing their power to influence specifically the images representing them.