Representations of Older Women in Algerian Television Programs: Between Media Exclusion and the Imperative of Social Care

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the representations of older women in Algerian television programs by uncovering the mechanisms of media exclusion that mark their presence, contrasted with the dominance of a social-care discourse as the primary framework for their appearance. The study adopts a sociological–communication approach grounded in the theory of social representations of gender, the concept of symbolic violence, and the intersectional approach to understand the overlap of gender- and age-based discrimination within television discourse. The results show that aging is not excluded per se, but is reframed according to gender affiliation; the older man is granted legitimacy to appear as an expert or analyst, whereas the older woman is excluded from positions of cognitive agency or reduced to narratives of pity and care. The study concludes that Algerian television channels reproduce symbolic representations that legitimize male dominance and exclude older women from the public sphere, stressing the necessity of shifting from a logic of care to a logic of recognition and empowerment.