Large media outlets are, unfortunately, like large long-term care institutions. They prosper by standardizing their product and that standardization is lethal to voices and viewpoints outside of the accepted bounds of discourse.
Here is an example of what I mean.
If I am running a large magazine and I want to make a profit then logic, and good business practice, will lead me to highlight stories that confirm the biases that most of my readers already hold. At the same time, I will avoid stories that contradict or even question my read
ership’s prejudices.
This is why the magazine racks are stuffed with publications that cater to America’s bias against aging. This is why all the cover models are young and airbrushed.
Pro-Aging stories are not featured in the mass media because the managers of those publications— correctly– understand that pro-aging stories challenge the basis of our culture’s entrenched ageism.
The good news is that those of us who share a pro-aging bias, those of us who believe in a newer, better, happier and more fulfilling Elderhood live in a time when fantastic new communication tools are available to us. We can bypass the mass media and tell our story through— social media.
That is what this blog and this blogstream are all about. We are telling the world a new story about aging…
And— we would love for you to join us.
