台灣報紙中失智老人之再現語言

110年06月30日  

研究生：黃嬿樺

指導教授：陳錦慧 博士

台灣報紙中失智老人之再現語言

Representations of Older People Living with Dementia in Taiwanese Newspaper

摘要:

由於台灣及全球的老年失智人口持續上升，顯示出大眾對此疾病認識的重要性。媒體對失智症的報導可能會影響大眾對失智症的認知及態度，報紙為其中一種具有影響力的媒體。關於失智症及年老失智者如何被描述的研究大多來自西方國家，反之，在亞洲國家，關於失智症及年老失智者如何被報導的研究偏少數。因此，本研究以台灣的新聞資料為主，運用批判文本分析，進一步推估老年失智患者有關的意識型態。本研究分為兩個階段: 第一: 於2019年主流台灣報紙中的老人失智者再現。第二:聚焦聯合報發行於1951-1989年、1999年、2009年、2019年的報紙，分析老人失智者再現策略的演變。批判文本分析構面分別為:角色分配、命名策略、角色關聯性、社會網絡、社會分類。研究1的結果指出失智者最常見的描述形式，主要強化負面的刻板印象，進而創造新聞價值。主要的再現策略包含:失智者被描述為迷路、失聯及接受他人幫忙的接收者。研究2的結果顯示於1951至2019年間，失智者的報導方式分為三個方向，分別是失智症與老年的關聯、不斷強化失智者的脆弱面以及唯一的正面描述即是多樣貌的職能角色，此寫法可以讓失智者擺脫既定的負面印象。總體來說，失智症的報導方式大多為消極且具貶抑，此描寫手法可能會導致更多大眾對失智症的不了解，或對失智者持有歧視、汙名化的態度，甚至對老年人產生反感，誤以為年紀增長為罹患失智症的唯一原因。此外，進一步檢討這些意識形態對於大眾的影響:例如: 歧視性的態度也可能會影響到失智者及家屬的生活品質與福祉。因此，藉由提升對失智者媒體再現結果的重視，可以降低大眾對此疾病的誤解，進而減少對失智症的汙名化、歧視、及負面的刻板印象。

關鍵字: 失智長者、報紙、媒體再現、批判性文本分析 

Abstract:

Owing to the increasing number of elderly people with dementia in Taiwan as well as the whole world, the prevalence of elderly people with dementia highlights the importance of improving public awareness of the disease. Media coverage of people living with dementia could influence the public’s perception and attitude toward the disease. Newspaper is one of the most influential forms of mass media. Studies on the portrayals of dementia or elderly people with dementia were mainly conducted in western countries. In contrast, there are rare studies about this topic in Asian countries. Therefore, the purpose of the present study is to fill the gap based on Taiwanese data and explore how older people with dementia are represented. Critical discourse analysis was used to examine the portrayals of elderly people with dementia and identify the ideological effects of linguistic features representing older people living with dementia. Two sets of data were collected in the two phase of this thesis: Study 1 incorporated the relevant news reports from the four Taiwanese newspapers (China Times, Apple Daily, Liberty Times and United Daily News) in 2019, and Study 2 sampled news reports from United Daily News released in the period between 1951 and 1989, in 1999, 2009, and 2019. The analysis focused on several dimensions such as role allocation, referential strategies, association, nomination and categorization. The first study in this thesis revealed reinforcement of negative stereotypes by portraying older people with dementia in terms of getting lost, losing contact with others, being receivers of others’ help. Study two indicated that between 1951 and 2019, three patterns of portrayals of older people with dementia were identified, namely, increasing association with older age, growing vulnerability and greater diversity in well-functioned roles. Through negative depictions were still the main pattern, in the more recent samples, more positive ones could be found. The ideological effects of the findings were stigmatization and discrimination toward people with dementia and elders. The main risk of such findings could be a negative influence on the life quality of individuals with dementia or their family members. Increasing awareness of such ideological effects should be encouraged.

Keywords: older people with dementia, newspapers, media representations, critical discourse analysis