Leven voor het scherm: het belang van televisiekijken voor ouderen in een maatschappelijk en persoonlijk ontwikkelingsperspectief

The dominant perspective underlying investigations into the media use of elderly regards 'old age' as a rather separate and problematic life stage, and media use as a coping tool. This rationale was tested in a face-to-face survey about TV viewing motivations and patterns among 284 Flemish elderly. Since the dominant perspective pays little attention to the continuity in people’s lives, and the link between one's personal history and current television use, an additional qualitative study was conducted to explore this 'historical and developmental' dimension of media use. The quantitative results reveal that a subcategory of elderly considers television viewing as a substitute for structuring activities and real life contacts. The semi-structured interviews indicate that past experiences, habits and mores influence this generation's media behavior and that elderly see mass media as part of societal evolutions.