Older People in the Media Awards are back!

What: A celebration of the best coverage, across all media, concerning older people’s issues, from news reporting, through to photojournalism and the best portrayals of older people in films or TV drama.

When: Tuesday 19 November 2013

Independent Age and Barchester Healthcare are thrilled to announce that the Older People in the Media Awards 2013 are now open for nominations.

At a special awards ceremony to be held in centralLondonon Tuesday 19 November 2013, we will once again be celebrating older people in all aspects of the media and shining a light on coverage which has either positively portrayed older people, or sensitively highlighted the issues they face.

The Older People in the Media Awards 2013 follows the success of the 2012 awards, whose winners included, amongst others, BBC1 Controller, Danny Cohen for his brave and groundbreaking season of BBC1 documentaries, When I’m 65, Dame Maggie Smith for her feisty, funny portrayal of the Dowager Lady Grantham in Downton Abbey, Louis Theroux for his sympathetic exploration of living with dementia, as well as a host of regional outlets which successfully and sensitively drew attention to older people’s issues.

We are now taking nominations for this year’s 10 categories, which are:

1. Best factual newspaper or magazine article about older people’s issues
2. Best factual radio programme about older people’s issues
3. Best factual TV programme about older people’s issues
4. Best factual new media article about older people’s issues
5. Best coverage of issues around dementia and/or social care (Barchester special award)
6. Best independent voice on older people’s issues (Independent Age special award)
7. Best older person’s character in a film, TV or radio drama (Gransnet special award, voted on by the readers of Gransnet)
8. Best use of photography to illustrate older people’s issues
9. ‘The Thorn Award’: Worst example of stereotyping, factual error or misleading information in the coverage of older people’s issues
10. Overall award winner: best overall contribution to the debate on older people’s issues

Speaking of the awards, Janet Morrison, Chief Executive of Independent Age said: “The Older People in the Media Awards are our way of recognising and thanking those people in the media who are working so hard to promote older people in a sympathetic way and are recognising the importance of the issues they face. Last year’s awards showed just what an incredible and inspiring slate of programming, articles and blogs there are which make efforts to move away from the stereotypes and assumptions about older people and show them instead as complex, individual and fascinating.” 

Mike Parsons, Founder and Chief Executive of Barchester Healthcare said: “No one, including journalists, should make presumptions about older people based solely on their age. We are proud to be working together with Independent Age once again to recognise and celebrate those in the media who, as well as highlighting just how astonishing and delightful older people can be, are also helping to create a sea-change by encouraging wider public debate about older people in society, the contribution they make and the issues they face.”

Nominate now! The Older People in the Media Awards are now open for nominations. Anyone can nominate and it is free to do so.

Nominations must have first appeared in the media between 15 August 2012 and 14 August 2013. If you, or your readers, would like to submit any entries, let us know by completing the online form, which can be found at www.independentage.org (where you can also find the full criteria for each of the categories). The closing date for nominations is Wednesday 21 August 2013.