Communication officers in local authorities meeting social media : On the production of social media photos of older adults
Xu, Wenqian LU
and Taghizadeh Larsson, Annika
(2021)
In Journal of Aging Studies
58.
- Abstract
European local authorities increasingly use social media to present services and activities organized for citizens living in the particular area. Previous studies found that authority-managed social media visually depicted older adults as being active, sociable, happy, and physically capable, reflecting the normative “third age” representation. Yet few studies to date have examined how local authorities produce the photos of older adults for social media posting. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with communication officers in a Swedish municipality, the purpose of this study is to investigate the production process for social media photos of older adults within local authorities from an institutional logics perspective. The... (More)
European local authorities increasingly use social media to present services and activities organized for citizens living in the particular area. Previous studies found that authority-managed social media visually depicted older adults as being active, sociable, happy, and physically capable, reflecting the normative “third age” representation. Yet few studies to date have examined how local authorities produce the photos of older adults for social media posting. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with communication officers in a Swedish municipality, the purpose of this study is to investigate the production process for social media photos of older adults within local authorities from an institutional logics perspective. The analysis illustrates that communication officers strive to create a good image of the municipality and its services, follow municipal policy and EU law on data protection, seek photos through particular sources, adjust to and develop photographic standards of good photos, and endeavor to promote social media engagement in the photos. These motives and work practices of communication officers contribute to the visual representations of older adults as engaging in municipal services, being socially active, and staying physically capable. The analysis also indicates that both social media and bureaucratic logics encourage officers to produce photos of older adults that highlight the bright side of later life. The findings contribute to previous studies on online representations of older adults generated by local authorities, by showing how the third age representation may come about in practice, and which logics may influence officers to generate such representation. Furthermore, the knowledge provided could be used as a basis for assessment and improvement on authorities' production for social media photos of older adults, which in turn contributes to more diverse and thoughtful representations of older adults and later life in authority-managed social media.
(Less)
- author
- Xu, Wenqian
LU
and Taghizadeh Larsson, Annika
- publishing date
- 2021-09
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- keywords
- Ageism, Institutional logics, Local authority, Older adults, Social media, Third age, Visual representations
- in
- Journal of Aging Studies
- volume
- 58
- article number
- 100952
- publisher
- Elsevier
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85114847671
- pmid:34425987
- ISSN
- 0890-4065
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.jaging.2021.100952
- project
- Ageism in the Media
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- no
- additional info
- Funding Information: The authors would like to thank all interview participants for their participation and cooperation. The authors are grateful for comments from anonymous reviewers and the editor of this journal. This study was accomplished within the context of the National Graduate School for Competitive Science on Ageing and Health (SWEAH) funded by the Swedish Research Council . Funding Information: This work was supported by the European Union 's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement [No 764632 ]. Publisher Copyright: © 2021 The Authors
- id
- ed93526f-df17-48fc-9f3e-589dcb51b168
- date added to LUP
- 2022-12-21 09:22:51
- date last changed
- 2024-06-13 21:59:59
@article{ed93526f-df17-48fc-9f3e-589dcb51b168,
abstract = {{<p>European local authorities increasingly use social media to present services and activities organized for citizens living in the particular area. Previous studies found that authority-managed social media visually depicted older adults as being active, sociable, happy, and physically capable, reflecting the normative “third age” representation. Yet few studies to date have examined how local authorities produce the photos of older adults for social media posting. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with communication officers in a Swedish municipality, the purpose of this study is to investigate the production process for social media photos of older adults within local authorities from an institutional logics perspective. The analysis illustrates that communication officers strive to create a good image of the municipality and its services, follow municipal policy and EU law on data protection, seek photos through particular sources, adjust to and develop photographic standards of good photos, and endeavor to promote social media engagement in the photos. These motives and work practices of communication officers contribute to the visual representations of older adults as engaging in municipal services, being socially active, and staying physically capable. The analysis also indicates that both social media and bureaucratic logics encourage officers to produce photos of older adults that highlight the bright side of later life. The findings contribute to previous studies on online representations of older adults generated by local authorities, by showing how the third age representation may come about in practice, and which logics may influence officers to generate such representation. Furthermore, the knowledge provided could be used as a basis for assessment and improvement on authorities' production for social media photos of older adults, which in turn contributes to more diverse and thoughtful representations of older adults and later life in authority-managed social media.</p>}},
author = {{Xu, Wenqian and Taghizadeh Larsson, Annika}},
issn = {{0890-4065}},
keywords = {{Ageism; Institutional logics; Local authority; Older adults; Social media; Third age; Visual representations}},
language = {{eng}},
publisher = {{Elsevier}},
series = {{Journal of Aging Studies}},
title = {{Communication officers in local authorities meeting social media : On the production of social media photos of older adults}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jaging.2021.100952}},
doi = {{10.1016/j.jaging.2021.100952}},
volume = {{58}},
year = {{2021}},
}