Online Workshops
Asynchronous Session
Romance Scams Targeting Older Adults: Social Awareness of a Growing Problem View Digital Media
Workshop Presentation Ronald Dolon
Older adults continue to have an interest in dating well into old age. A recent study found that 14% of unmarried adults ages 57-85 were in dating relationships. Romance fraud is a method used by offenders where they use the perception of a legitimate relationship in order to manipulate and exploit the victim. The increased usage of social media, social networking, and online dating websites has helped to increase the ability of offenders to communicate with the targeted potential victims. According to the United States Senate Special Committee on Aging of the 10 most reported scams of older adults, romance scams were ranked fourth but were ranked first in costliness at 83.7 million dollars. This workshop provides training on how to help prevent romance scams, and the level of resources available for help with legal, medical, social, and family support.
An "Elderly Man with a Poor Memory": The “Black Hole” of Ageism and Its Impact on the 2024 US Presidential Election View Digital Media
Workshop Presentation Margaret Tally
The 2024 US Presidential campaign of Joe Biden has been plagued from the beginning with the “problem” of his age. Overshadowing other news events and issues, the focus on Biden’s age has dominated the discussion in a way that has virtually no other precedent in contemporary politics. Newspapers like the New York Times and media outlets like MSNBC have tried to understand why Biden’s longevity is more of an issue than his opponent, who at 79 years has not experienced the same level of scrutiny for being too old to run for President. This paper examines the coverage of Biden's age in US media outlets, focusing on how the media handled the candidates and why they were treated differently based on age. I am specifically interested in how the press examines its own stories and tries to make sense of the portrayals coming out during the presidential campaign around Biden’s and Trump’s respective ages. My method draws on a narrative analysis of crucial selections from mainstream and left-of-center media during this period. It considers how they analyzed these differential treatments by other media outlets, including in some cases their own outlets. I then broaden the discussion to analyze how we might use these media critiques to counter some of the more pernicious aspects of ageism, which are part and parcel of contemporary cultural discourses in American media outlets.
