Mechanisms and dominant effects in rainfall at event and monthly time scales

something new to the public image of the baby boomers.

5.3 MEDIA REPRESENTATIONS OF THE AGEING BABY BOOMERS

Previous leading studies on the media representations of the baby boomers were first done in the United Kingdom. Phillipson et al. (2008) studied social and cultural constructions of British first-wave baby boomers born in the period 1945–1954 by examining a mixture of sources, including major UK newspapers and the AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) database. According to the analysis results, ‘boomers are depicted, variously,

as bringing new lifestyles and attitudes to ageing and retirement; or heralding economic disaster; or creating long-term pressure for health and social care services’ (Phillipson et al. 2008). The authors further suggest that reviewing the range of study data reveals the way in which the baby boomers are being constructed as a ‘problem generation’ in three areas: demography, consumption and politics. First, boomer demographics refers to the sheer size of the baby boomer cohort, with them viewed as presenting a distinctive problem in relation to stability for the pension and health care system.

Secondly, the pivotal role of the boomers in the field of consumption, backed by their individualism and pursuit of leisure activities, raises concerns about how consumerist ambitions structure old age when resources become limited.

Third, and finally, boomer politics indicates the potential role of boomers as a social and political force in securing a high level of health and social security (Phillipson et al. 2008).

Following the work of Phillipson et al., Bristow (2016) elaborated on the development of the cultural script of the baby boomers in British newspapers over a 26-year period, between the years 1986 and 2011, and examined how shifts in the discourse about the boomer generation relate to wider social, economic, cultural and political trends (Bristow 2016: 575). One of the observations from the initial analysis is that the boomers have been constructed predominantly as a problem in the mainstream press only since about 2006 (Bristow 2016: 578, emphasis in original). Bristow argues that during the period between 2006 and 2011, the representation of the baby boomer generation as a cultural, as a demographic and as an economic problem came together to create a media discourse exclusively hostile to the said generation. ‘Boomergeddon’, a recurring motif in newspaper reports since 2006, fuses anxieties about the demographic and economic impact on pension and healthcare systems arising from approaching boomer retirement with a cultural critique of hedonistic behaviours associated with the 1960s generation (Bristow 2016: 576, 580). According to Bristow, however, these claims about the baby boomers as a problem generation do not derive from public opinion in the United Kingdom, but rather, they have their roots in the United States, which later came to be adopted to frame the discussion in British newspapers To the best of the researcher's knowledge, equivalent scholarly work examining the media construction of ageing baby boomers in the context of the United States is not available. Nevertheless, a theoretical exploration of the baby boomers and political construction of old age undertaken by Hudson and Gonyea (2012) helps us to understand Bristow’s argument about the roots of perceiving the boomers as a problem generation. Building on the conceptual framework on the social construction of a target population (Schneider &

Ingram 1993), Hudson and Gonyea have scrutinised the political journey of the aged over time, from ‘Dependent’ to ‘Advantaged’, and ultimately, to

‘Contender’. The baby boomers are regarded as playing a central role in the transformation of the elderly from ‘Advantaged’ to ‘Contender’, which signifies a loss of political legitimacy. The political legitimacy pertinent to the aged as

‘Advantaged’ for a long time has been based on an earlier construction founded on notions of vulnerability and sacrifice (Hudson & Gonyea 2012: 279). The authors argue that the alleged characteristics of the baby boomers, such as self-absorption, selfishness and a strong sense of entitlement, reinforce the boomers’ ‘Contender’ status, which is combined with challenging demographic, economic, fiscal and political landscapes to shift the political construction of old age.

Unlike British and American discussions, which tend to place the baby boom generation with a discourse of hostile criticism and somewhat obscure cultural and economic scripts, a Swedish study by Jönson and Jönsson (1995) took a more concrete approach by investigating how the media present the baby boomers as future care users. They analysed 481 newspaper articles from six Swedish newspapers published between 1995 and 2012. The aim of the study was to examine how the Swedish baby boomers, known as the ‘40s generation’ (fyrtiotalisterna) and characterised as being youthful and powerful, are supposed to display themselves as future care users. According to the study results, the ‘40s generation’ are predicted to influence eldercare of the future by their size, affluence and power. An attitude of ‘never accepting given conditions’, a special characteristic of members of the ‘40s generation’

shaped by their particular past, anticipates that they will never be content with current eldercare. The newspaper articles see the capacity to change society and its future as the very essence of the ‘40s generation’ and expand this notion to their prospective capacity to change old age. The study then observes that the media construction of the Swedish baby boomers as being capable of changing old age will be followed by a change in what it means to be a care user (Jönson & Jönsson 2015: 85). The researchers contend that predictions about a new breed of demanding, self-aware care users, who can plan, direct, take control of and determine the type of help and assistance they need, have been used in the newspaper discussions to make claims about the need to improve care for older people (Jönson & Jönsson 2015: 87).

Ageing of the baby boomers is expected to lead to significant changes in Australian society too, where boomer cohorts were born in the years 1946–

1965 (Humpel, O'Loughlin, Wells & Kendig 2009, 2010; Tavener, Byles &

Loxton 2014; Quine & Carter 2006). An extensive review of Australian peer-reviewed literature and Internet information published during 1996–2005 focusing on the areas of health, housing, work and income, and responsibility reveals that there is a paucity of research on the expectations, plans and preparations of baby boomers for their retirement and old age (Quine & Carter 2006). Drawing on the observed fact that many of the publications are speculative rather than evidence based, the study calls for the need for more empirical research to obtain information directly from the baby boomers.

The results from these studies offer insights into contemporary issues surrounding the ageing of the baby boomers. However, as explained previously in Chapter 4, the baby boomers in Japan and Finland, born in a shorter span in the years immediately after World War II, have a more

significant generational characteristics and consciousness compared to their British and American counterparts, whose births extend for as long as a twenty-year period. Public discussions in Japan and Finland regarding the retirement and old age of the boomers might not be as antagonistic as those in the United Kingdom or in the United States. The much more protracted ageing process of the various boomer cohorts appears to generate serious threat in Anglo-American societies in terms of the stability of the economy and politics.

On the other hand, as Japanese and Finnish baby boomers grow old, their cultural and social characteristics might be revised through media discourse, thereby adding to their generational consciousness, much in the way that Purhonen (2007: 136) has explained how the media produced the generation in the first place. Hence, it is of great importance to examine how public discussions in Japan and Finland articulate the ageing of a particular population group with generational distinctiveness, and to consider how it affects understandings and perceptions in the respective societies about old age, ageing and older adults.

5.4 PORTRAYALS OF AGEING AND OLDER PEOPLE IN