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The COVID-19 crisis has accelerated the adoption of digital content and services, particularly in Italy, a country historically slower in embracing communication technologies (European Commission, 2023). Mobility restrictions have hastened the digitalization of daily life, including communication, entertainment, and utility services (Auditel & Censis, 2022). Older individuals, traditionally less digitally proficient, have faced challenges adapting to this rapid digitalization (Rolandi et al., 2020, NIHR, 2022). However, early evidence suggests that this digital acceleration may not be sufficient to bridge the digital divide, especially among older populations (Litchfield et al., 2021, Colombo et al., 2023). This paper explores the changes occurring in the relationship between older people and new technologies based on data provided by longitudinal qualitative research, which involved a panel of 40 over-65 residents in the Lodigiano region, the first red zone – affected by the pandemic and its restrictions – in Europe. This contribution aims to highlight how active seniors have experienced a transformation in their approach to technology from the onset of the pandemic (2020) to the present day. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and then imported into the NVivo application for content analysis. Grounded Theory (Glaser & Strauss, 1967) was utilized, involving several stages. The analysis also aimed to formulate ideal types for interpreting the diverse approaches to digital adoption among the older population. From the present study, it emerged that the rapid process of digitalization during the COVID-19 pandemic has not effectively bridged the digital divide, but rather widened it. The swift digitalization of public services highlights the challenges in ensuring inclusivity, especially for older individuals. While digitalization can benefit those with support networks, it further marginalizes isolated seniors. Policy-makers need to consider existing care

The digital transition poses relevant challenges and opportunities for older adults in aging European societies. To unleash the potential of the digital transition in old age and avoid the risk of exclusion, digital education for older adults seems to be a valuable solution. One of the most suitable approaches to digital education for older adults appears to be the peer-to-peer approach. However, not much literature is available on this topic. Within the ACTIVE-IT project, we aimed to design, implement, and evaluate a digital peer education course for older adults, focusing specifically on the use of smartphones and daily utility apps, such as mailing, e-Gov, and e-commerce. The purpose of this contribution is to document the protocol adopted to evaluate the course. The course involved 32 participants aged 65 or older, who, between March 2024 and June 2024, divided into three groups, attended a 10-lesson weekly course taught by a peer. We aim to measure the effect of the course on participants' digital skills and their perceived wellbeing. To do so, we will adopt a mixed methods approach, employing: digital methods by collecting and analyzing data on participants' smartphone use (i.e., log data on smartphone use before/during/after the intervention); a quasi-experiment, collecting information on course participants' wellbeing before/after the course attendance using a questionnaire survey; ethnographic observation conducted during the course, observing interactions between subjects during the course. The study has been approved by the Ethic Committee of the University of Milano Bicocca (prot.nr. 167541/2024).

Introduction Appropriate communication models are crucial in order to strengthen preventive and health promotion interventions via digital platforms. Today, 52.23% of the Italian population use the Internet as a source of health-related information. The aim of the “Insegna Salute” project was to create a website that would enable people to satisfy their health needs and increase their awareness in the field of prevention. Methods To create the website, a literature search was carried out to obtain an overview of online health communication before, during and after the Covid-19 pandemic. Results The investigation resulted in 26 sources regarding health communication, vaccine hesitancy, online health information seeking, visual identity, current digital and social trends and mis/disinformation. Our findings led to the definition of insegnasalute.it according to the one-to-many (screen-to-face) communication model and a user-centred design. The website will be organised in sections dedicated to the University Department's projects and preventive health issues. Tools such as Google Analytics and questionnaires will provide further insights and enable the platform to be updated. Conclusions In line with the preventive guidelines issued by the Italian Ministry of Health, new tools, such as “Insegna Salute”, integrate health knowledge with communication strategies. Addressing vaccine hesitancy and health prevention issues necessitates the use of effective strategies that foster trust-based relationships.

Aging is an inevitable process for all human beings. Aging not only affects the personal life of individuals, but also has an impact on society as a whole: a country with many elderly people is a more fragile, less innovative country, with higher costs in terms of health and pension expenditure. In this context, information and communication technologies (ICT) can offer an important support in addressing some of the challenges related to ageing, improving communication between generations, access to information and the possibility of remaining active and involved in society, mitigating the negative effects of aging and transforming the elderly into a resource for the community. The complexity and importance of the topic has led different disciplines to study (from different points of view) the relationship between aging and the use of ICT.The present study aims to investigate the theme of aging and how it is studied in relation to digital technologies from an interdisciplinary perspective. Due to the heterogeneity of perspectives and analyses in this field of study, a careful examination of interdisciplinary scientific journals focused on aging processes was required. Therefore, the analysis of scientific production was focused on two international scientific journals: The Gerontologist and Research on Aging

This article presents the results of a quantitative research on the relationship between work background and digital media use among older people. The aim of the study is to investigate the relationship between gender, employment status and professional level, and the technological equipment, skills, use and appropriation processes of ICT by older people. A sample of 900 Italians between 65 and 74 years old has been used for quantitative analysis. From the results it emerges that gender, working condition and professional level differently influence technological equipment, frequency of use of Internet, PC and Social Networks, while gender, income and educational qualification determine IT competence. The discussion highlighted the importance of the life and work trajectory in influencing the processes digital media domestication. Finally, the limitations of the research were discussed and future developments suggested.

La ricerca di OssCom - Centro di Ricerca sui Media e la Comunicazione dell’ Università Cattolica - si è posta l’obiettivo di approfondire qualitativamente alcune evidenze emerse dai questionari rivolti ai consultori famigliari e alle associazioni famigliari e dai questionari rivolti alle famiglie, somministrati nel luglio 2021 dal Centro di Ateneo Studi e Ricerche sulla Famiglia – Università Cattolica. Nel dicembre 2021 sono stati condotti 4 focus group (3 online con residente in Regione Lombardia e uno in presenza, a Cinisello Balsamo con residenti della città) con genitori di figli tra i 6 e i 12 anni e tra i 14 e i 17 anni. Un bilancio di due anni d’emergenza Covid19: nulla sarà come prima (in meglio) Abbiamo chiesto ai nostri intervistati di riflettere sui mesi passati e di comparare la situazione attuale del proprio nucleo familiare nel suo complesso con quella del 2019 (prima dell’evento pandemico) e di fare un bilancio. In particolare, abbiamo domandato in quali aspetti la condizione della propria famiglia sia marcatamente migliorata o peggiorata.

Negli ultimi anni si sta assistendo a un drammatico processo di invecchiamento: l’aumento dell’aspettativa di vita e la diminuzione del tasso di fertilità sta comportando il crescere del numero degli over 65 nella società. In particolare l’Italia è un Paese anziano e che sta invecchiando: più di un quinto della popolazione è over 65 e la previsione è di un progressivo invecchiamento della popolazione, sia per l’aumento delle aspettative di vita sia per la decrescente natalità (Istat, 2017 ). Parallelamente all’invecchiamento anagrafico della popolazione, attorno allo sviluppo della “nuova vecchiaia” è in corso un’ampia riflessione (Bodei 2014);(Augé 2014) concorde nel rilevare che, a causa del crescere dell’aspettativa di vita, gli anziani hanno una “nuova” età, la quarta, da vivere con crescente energia. Gli anziani di oggi non solo vivono il presente come l'ultima (sempre più lunga) fase della loro vita ma la vivono da protagonisti (LUHMANN 1976), con la necessità di rendere sempre più significativa una considerevole fetta della loro esistenza. Con l’invecchiamento della popolazione aumentano gli anni di vita e la necessità di renderli significativi. Tuttavia questo processo può comportare ance dei risvolti negativi. Il sistema di welfare (in particolari i servizi socio-sanitari) è messo sotto pressione dall’incrementata necessità di assistenza alle fasce più anziane della popolazione: l’incremento degli anziani aumenta il numero di soggetti più esposti a problemi di salute di natura cronico-degenerativa. Oltre la metà della popolazione italiana ultrasettantacinquenne soffre infatti di patologie croniche gravi (Istat, 2015 ). Nella classe di età 65-69 anni e 75 e oltre, le donne che soffrono di almeno una cronicità grave rappresentano, rispettivamente, il 28 e il 51 per cento. Gli uomini soffrono di almeno una cronicità grave nel 36% dei casi, nella classe di età 65-69, e nel 57 per cento, tra quelli ultrasettantacinquenni (ibidem). Con l’i

While it is true that ageing dramatically affects the sustainability of welfare systems, increasing life expectancy in most Western countries is also seen as an opportunity to live longer and better: The healthiest older people are also the most dynamic in terms of work activity and social and cultural capital. In this debate, media and communication technologies are often seen as tools to enable older people to age actively, thanks to their potential for inclusion. The empowerment of older people through the use of communication technologies is strongly influenced by the social and family context in which digital media are used and by the formal and informal contexts in which their use is learned. Starting from this context, this article investigates the relationship between career paths and the use of digital media among older people. We conducted 20 in-depth interviews and ethnographic sessions with Italian internet users aged over 65. The results show how their current condition (retired or employed) and the job previously held have a fundamental impact in both the processes of domestication of technologies and internet use, but also in the structuring of the home itself and the positioning and use of technologies in the domestic space of older people.

Ageing Europeans are today healthier than previous generations and often manage to live independently up to a high age. The proportion of people 80 years of age and older has increased significantly, and with high age the risk of multi-illness and dementia increases. Strong urbanisation processes have changed the demographic structure in rural areas, and young women and men have migrated towards the urban areas to study and work, while older persons have remained behind. This demographic challenge of increasing numbers of persons older than 80 years with care needs living in remote rural areas has become a major European social problem. In tackling this dilemma, many European countries have high expectations for eHealth, digitalisation and welfare technology. In this comparative study of policy debates in Italy, Finland and Sweden, we analyse how - between 2009 and 2019 - the issues of eHealth have been articulated in national and regional policies of the three countries with deep differences in terms of digitalisation and health systems, but with similar ageing populations. We identify in the documents three core topics - the role of technology, the rural issue and responsibility for care. These topics are treated in the documents with differences and similarities between the three countries. Beyond the differences and similarities, the documents reveal both a certain techno-enthusiasm about the role of eHealth in the life of the older adults as well as a limited understanding of the complexity (relationally as well as spatially) of the digital landscape of caring for older adults.

The article aims to assess the long post-Covid-19 phase from the point of view of the relationship between seniors and ICTs, with an Italian focus. During the first phase of the pandemic (in some ways the most acute and dramatic, because of its newness and the uncertainties to be able to face it) an increase in the overall production and consumption of digital contents and tools was at large empirically observed. At that stage, interesting hypotheses were formulated based on the assumption that the pandemic should spread the ICTs even among the most resistant categories, including the seniors. Three years after the pandemic outbreak, it is time to empirically test how reasonable this hypothesis was, how well it is borne out by the facts, and what general interpretations regarding the effect of major events and crises on the diffusion of technologies among seniors can be made. Our thesis is that, in Italy, the effect on current seniors in terms of diffusion is limited if not null. Instead, the data show that the pandemic has strengthened the divide between seniors and younger generations, and consequently supports the interpretation of technologies as markers for second-level digital divide.

In questo capitolo osserveremo anzitutto come evolve la relazione tra dibattito pubblico e media in seno alla modernità e fino ai nostri giorni; poi affronteremo il dibattito sugli utilizzi partecipativi (sociali, civili, politici) del Web; quindi osserveremo in che modo i media e i nuovi media trasformano l’idea stessa di democrazia partecipativa nel momento in cui ne toccano profondamente le dinamiche; e in quale direzione si sta svolgendo o si potrebbe svolgere tale trasformazione. Questo percorso ci porterà a incrociare principalmente i territori della sociologia critica, con una particolare attenzione per la sociologia dei media e le sue relazioni con le scienze della politica

In questo capitolo introdurremo le piú importanti teorie e ricerche sul pubblico dei media, soffermandoci anche sull’uso che l’industria culturale ha fatto di queste ricerche per meglio comprendere i propri consumatori. Ricostruiremo progressivamente una storia delle teorie e delle pratiche di analisi dei pubblici, mettendo in evidenza le loro differenti concettualizzazioni. Attraverseremo in tal modo i territori tanto della mediologia classica, quanto (soprattutto) di quella critica, in quanto faremo uso degli strumenti della sociologia, della teoria critica, dei cultural studies, per arrivare ai new media studies.

In questo capitolo introdurremo le piú importanti teorie sugli effetti dei media: tali teorie hanno attraversato negli ultimi cento anni la riflessione e gli studi di psicologia e sociologia della comunicazione; e piú recentemente (a partire dagli anni Settanta) hanno coinvolto anche l’antropologia, la linguistica e la semiotica dei media. In ogni caso, la riflessione sugli effetti rimane il tema maggiormente caratteristico della mediologia classica, dalle sue origini fino agli sviluppi piú recenti [#introduzione]. Dato il tema, incroceremo nel corso di questo capitolo alcuni argomenti affrontati in modo piú completo altrove, e in particolare #informazione, #pubblici, #pubblicità.

Drawing on recent research insights (Airola, Rasi 2020), this study explores how ICTs (Information and Communication Technologies) use is incorporated into older adults’ everyday life, thus contributing to shape ageing processes in remote areas. The research was set in a small mountain village located in central Italy, called Castel del Monte, which counts less than 500 resident citizens, for the most part older people. Carried on through one-month participant observation in January 2020 and 20 in-depth interviews with people over 65, the research broadly explores: RQ1: what does ageing in a remote mountain context mean? RQ2: how are digital technologies interwoven with ageing processes? RQ3: how are digital technologies incorporated into older adults’ daily health-care practices? Overall, ICTs were interpreted as an amplifier of the older adults’ «space of possibilities for social action» (Tulle 2008). Our research results invite to overcome individualistic accounts of active ageing as the ICTs-favoured empowerment of older people, and to rather consider digital technologies as tools fitting into concrete landscapes of care (Milligan, Wiles 2010) which – especially in rural contexts – are often based on informal networks of care.

This article presents the results of a qualitative-quantitative research on the rela-tionship between work background and digital media use among the elderly. The aim of the study is to investigate the relationship between gender, employment status and professional level, and the technological endowments, skills, use and appropriation processes of ICT by the elderly. A sample of 900 Italians between 65 and 74 years old was used for quantitative analysis, together with 20 in-depth interviews. The research was conducted between December 2013 and April 2014. From the results it emerges that gender, working condition and profession-al level differently influence technological endowment, frequency of use of Inter-net and PC and Social Networks, while gender, income and educational qualifica-tion determine IT competence. This evidence was further corroborated and en-riched by the ethnographic investigation