Consumers and commodification: The marketization of aged care in the Australian press

Abstract

This article explores links between the Australian press and the marketization of aged care in Australia. By using critical discourse analysis as a research tool, and a data set of 61 news articles from eight mainstream Australian newspapers published in April 2012 and August 2013, this article argues that dominant discourses around ageing in the sampled newspapers are in the language of economic rationalism, and aged care is constructed as a commodity. Elderly people are constructed mainly as consumers of aged care, reflecting and reinforcing official narratives towards the marketization of care. The study from which this article is drawn found that most Australian journalists not only relayed official messages about the commodification of aged care without critical engagement, but also included few opposing opinions.