Hearing loss affects millions of people across all ages—but you wouldn’t know it from mainstream media. New data from a multi-country survey reveals just how rarely hearing aids and cochlear implants are seen in everyday media—and how often those portrayals miss the mark.
Andrew Bellavia speaks with Ceri Whittaker, Senior External Relations Manager at GN, who leads communications around initiatives like GN’s “New Norm,” and John Lucchese, founder of NS Audiology, an independent hearing clinic in Sydney, Australia, with nearly two decades of clinical experience serving a diverse patient population.
Together, they explore how media representation shapes perceptions of hearing loss—from outdated stereotypes to underrepresentation—and why improving visibility may be key to helping more people recognize hearing loss and seek support earlier.
- The New Norm image library is available here
Full Episode Transcript
Hello everyone, and welcome to This Week in Hearing. I, for one, am delighted to see the hearing industry getting increasingly proactive about countering stigmatizing messages around hearing loss. Those include those ancient and ugly hearing aids from the ’70s that still show up in mainstream media, portrayals of people with hearing loss as predominantly infirm, and a lack of representation in movies and TV commensurate with the prevalence of hearing loss at all ages. This isn’t just a feeling, there’s actually hard data. A recent YouGov survey in Australia found that 41% of Australians can’t recall a single instance in the past year where they saw someone wearing hearing aids or cochlear implants in mainstream media. Unless the content was specifically about hearing loss. They also found that 77% of Australians with hearing loss say media portrayals misrepresent them, often depicting them as elderly, fragile, or dependent, despite the fact that they themselves are aged 20 to 60, working, raising families, and so on. And also, over half of Australians say the lack of everyday media representation makes it harder for people to recognize hearing loss or seek help. We’re going to get the perspective of an audiology clinic owner on how this affects the way people they see approach hearing loss. But first, I have with me Ceri Whittaker, Senior External Relations Manager at the GN Group, to learn more about what they are doing to counter this. Ceri you facilitated several of my podcasts with GN people, but never been on yourself. So it’s a pleasure to have you today.
Thank you, Andy, and thank you very much for inviting me to be with you here today.
It’s my pleasure. Please tell everyone a little bit about yourself.
So my name, as you say, I’m Ceri Whittaker. I’m a Senior External Relations Manager in the Hearing Division of GN. I work in the communication team. I’ve been in the hearing aid business for over 20 years now. So as I say, I’m very old in GN terms. And recently I’ve had the pleasure to be working on a couple of campaigns that we have put out, which are the original New Norm, which we launched at World Hearing Day 2 years ago, and now this new iteration, the New Norm 2.
Oh, thank you. So because this time we’re really talking about a data-based action, right? Tell us a little bit more about the survey and how it was conducted.
Absolutely. So we wanted to find out two things, essentially. We wanted to see how often people see hearing loss represented in the general media and what impact that then has on how we think and how we behave. So we asked a number of questions. We asked people, when do you see hearing aids in the mainstream media? How are people with hearing loss presented, how does that impact your behavior and your perceptions of people with hearing loss? And we actually ran the survey across 3 countries. So you’re absolutely right, it was in Australia, but we also ran the YouGov survey online in the UK and in the US as well. And we got very consistent responses across all 3 of those markets. We surveyed 3,000 people in total across the 3 markets. And of those, almost 1,000 of them were people who lived with hearing loss, or live rather, with hearing loss. And that was really important for us because we wanted to get a good cross-section of perspectives. We wanted people there with the lived experience, but we also wanted people who probably don’t think about hearing loss very often, or maybe even at all, because we wanted to see how representation may affect behavior and thinking.
Okay, and so it’s interesting that you had the survey broken up into several thousand people on 3 different continents, and yet you found that the results were very similar amongst all 3 groups.
Yes, very, very similar. What we found actually was pretty startling. As you said, in Australia, 41% of people couldn’t name a single example from the previous 12 months of seeing a hearing aid or cochlear implant in the media when the content wasn’t specifically about hearing loss or hearing technology. That rose to 49% in the UK and 55% in America.
Absolutely. And you’re getting this feedback from people without hearing loss too, so when they say they haven’t seen any representation, it really means something.
Yeah, absolutely. Representation matters. Around 50% of people across those markets believe the lack of representation makes it harder for people to recognize hearing loss and seek support.
And that makes sense. If someone doesn’t realize how prevalent it is, they may not recognize it in themselves.
Exactly. If you don’t see yourself, it’s difficult to recognize it. And when hearing loss is portrayed, it’s often unrealistic—elderly, frail, dependent—which makes it harder for people to relate and take action.
Or it creates a negative reaction. People don’t want to look like that portrayal.
Exactly. We all see ourselves as younger than we are, and those portrayals are narrow and often reductive.
And that can impact workplace behavior too.
Yes, absolutely.
And so how did you translate the survey results into action with New Norm 2?
Well, starting with version 1… (continues)
I have with me now John Lucchese, founder of NS Audiology in Sydney, Australia…
Hi Andrew, thanks for having me. I’m the founder of NS Audiology. We’ve been in practice for 17 years…
… (continues full discussion)
Absolutely. The more we see hearing devices as normal, the more stigma is reduced.
Yeah, that’s a really good point…
My pleasure, Andrew. It’s been a lovely discussion and I look forward to catching up again.
You too.
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About the Panel
Ceri Whittaker is Senior External Relations Manager in the Hearing Division at GN, where she leads communications initiatives focused on hearing health awareness and representation. With more than 20 years in the hearing industry, she has played a key role in campaigns such as GN’s New Norm and New Norm Vol. 2, aimed at improving how hearing loss is portrayed in media.
John Lucchese is the founder of NS Audiology, an independent hearing and balance clinic in Sydney, Australia, with nearly two decades of clinical experience. His work spans a diverse patient population—including musicians and pediatric patients—and focuses on challenging outdated perceptions of hearing loss through modern, patient-centered care.
Andrew Bellavia is the Founder of AuraFuturity. He has experience in international sales, marketing, product management, and general management. Audio has been both of abiding interest and a market he served professionally in these roles. Andrew has been deeply embedded in the hearables space since the beginning and is recognized as a thought leader in the convergence of hearables and hearing health. He has been a strong advocate for hearing care innovation and accessibility, work made more personal when he faced his own hearing loss and sought treatment All these skills and experiences are brought to bear at AuraFuturity, providing go-to-market, branding, and content services to the dynamic and growing hearables and hearing health spaces.
