Mulheres idosas ressignificam o envelhecimento : contribuições da educomunicação

Abstract

In Brazil, at the beginning of the 21st century, the aging process has been understood, experienced and represented as a new stage of life, in which men and women can construct new identities and projects. The elderly population, motivated by gerontology professionals and by specific public policies, seeks to establish new space in the society from which they are usually excluded. This present time is also marked by the digitalization and broad access to communication technologies. The means to produce and to share contents on the word wide net and in other venues are nowadays more accessible. This contributes to the popular communication practices, to the expression and to the integration of socially excluded groups. Educomunication is a field of knowledge and practice, which promotes education through collective production of communication, allowing the involved people in this practice, to move from the position of observers to authors in their speeches. In this context it is relevant to understand in which ways the new possibilities of communication may contribute to giving new significance to the aging process for the elderly population. This study aimed to describe how the audiovisual production practice has been related to the process of redefining the aging process through the experience of five women that took part in a video workshop, held at Centro de Referencia do Idoso Vera Lucia Pilla (CRI), in the city of São Carlos, Sao Paulo, which was inspired by the methodology called Cala-Boca Já Morreu within an educomunication perspective. This is a case study in which data was collected through active observations recorded in a field diary and a video from April to July of 2012, during the workshop. The analysis was based on three categories: Giving new significance to aging, Cooperating and Communicating. The results show that the group participants seek social integration and co-existence with their peers, what encourages and what strengthens them. They feel motivated to learn new subjects, to become aware of and to claim their rights as citizens and to fight against discrimination through the construction of a new image of aging. It is noteworthy that the practice of educomunication contributed to their experience in the authored and coauthored process, giving value to collaboration as well as allowing them to make use of audiovisual communications in order to reflect and to express themselves about the aging process through the perspectives of elderly women. The collective production of communication has been shown as a possibility yet hardly explored to promote elderly education which should be considered in the new planning for cultural activities for this population. It was also shown that the application of digital technology should not be seen as an obstacle for the promotion of activities with this population. The study contributes for reflection of educators and public administrators about the importance to assure the right to education for elderly people, investing in programs that promote authorship processes. After all, each stage of life is a time for learning.