Abstract

SALAZAR-NORAMBUENA, Carola. COVID-19 and older adults: Representations from the Chilean Health Ministry. Anthropologica [online]. 2021, vol.39, n.47, pp.221-244. ISSN 0254-9212.  http://dx.doi.org/10.18800/anthropologica.202102.008.

Social representations are a set of ideas, practices and ideals that are part of the common sense of a group. Generally, the study of older adults’ representations is conducted by looking at the media, however, this research incorporates a key agent in the health/disease /care processes: the Ministry of Health. The main objective of this article is to identify older adults’ representations found in the Chilean Ministry of Health (MINSAL) news portal website during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Using framing analysis, four types of frames were found: age sub-groups, terms for referring to older adults, risk group and social solidarity. These four frames share some ageist qualities, that is, they have a biased view of older people, representing them as a homogeneous, dependent and without agency group, since other people speak for them.

Keywords : Older adults; Chile; Ageism; COVID-19; Framing analysis.

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