Problematic Demography: Representations of Population Ageing in the Swedish Daily Press

The ageing of populations has been a topic of discussion during the last few decades, but how is this subject represented
in the media, and what images of old age are produced? In this article we present the results of a quantitative content analysis
that investigates how the concept of population ageing has been represented in Swedish local and national daily news press
between 1988 and 2009, and the old age positions that are offered in these representations. We also use discourse analysis
in order to qualitatively examine the ways in which the concept of population ageing is articulated in these news press articles
and the old age positions that are thereby constituted. The results show that the concept is constituted as a naturalised
expert concept, and is primarily used in order to contextualise articles about future political and economical difficulties
or even crises. By articulating population ageing with both political policies, political economy and older people’s (as a
group) reported need for care and services, population ageing was constituted as a political economic concern rather than
a problem for the aged individual.