11 research outputs found
āThe Living Death of Alzheimerāsā Versus āTake a Walk to Keep Dementia at Bayā: Representations of Dementia in Print Media and Carer Discourse
Understanding dementia is a pressing social challenge. This paper draws on the āDementia talking: care conversation and communicationā project which aims to understand how talk about, and to, people living with dementia is constructed. In this paper I draw on the construction of dementia manifest in two data-sets - a corpus of 350 recent UK national newspaper articles and qualitative data derived from in-depth interviews with informal carers. These data were analysed using a thematic discursive approach. A āpanic-blameā framework was evident in much of the print media coverage. Dementia was represented in catastrophic terms as a ātsunamiā and āworse than deathā, juxtaposed with coverage of individualistic behavioural change
and lifestyle recommendations to āstave offā the condition. Contrary to this media discourse, in carersā talk there was scant use of hyperbolic metaphor or reference to individual responsibility for dementia, and any corresponding blame and accountability. I argue that the presence of individualistic dementia āpreventativeā behaviours in media discourse is problematic, especially in comparison to other more ācontrollableā and treatable chronic conditions. Engagement with, and critique of, the nascent āpanic-blameā cultural context may be fruitful in enhancing positive social change for people diagnosed with dementia and their carers