Duration: 2021 – 2022
Principal Researcher
Sandra Miranda
Team Members
Ana Gama
Research line:
Education, Citizenship and Inclusion
The changes in the social structure of the population, together with the demographic winter that is generally Europe, and the widespread dissemination of the network society, have brought a brave new world of opportunities to contemporary societies have brought contemporary societies a brave new world of opportunities, but also important challenges.The growing use of new Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) by senior citizens, and in particular digital social networks, has been seen as a positive sign of inclusion and digital literacy, it is forcing brands to a thorough process of understanding the interests, motivations and profile of these users, as well as developing and profile of these users, as well as to develop communication and liaison strategies in line with their specific specificities. Despite the window of opportunity that this presents, a study of the specialised literature literature shows an incipient and fragmented state of the art, mainly centred on young people or centred on young people or punctuated by research with a strong focus on technology.
This being the case, and being aware that, despite its strength and greatness, there is a great lack of knowledge about the senior segment (60+, World Health Organisation), particularly with regard to understanding the drivers and motivations for which they browse social media, how they interact with brands, and the communication strategies and processes that brands use to brands use to create a connection and engagement with them on online social networks.
an innovative approach to understanding the relationship that companies and brands must establish with this segment.
Taking into account the scarcity of specialised literature and the theoretical framework that translates into a fragmented and atomistic review of these issues, an interpretative paradigm, consolidating the netnographic approach (social network, Facebook) as our central methodological strategy, as it is considered to best captures and portrays media consumption practices, sociability processes and the communicational phenomena that involve the social representations of social actors within virtual communities (Kozinetz, 2010).
With this project, we hope to strengthen scientific production in the area of digital literacy and communication for seniors, bearing in mind not only its added value for the academic, professional and business academic, professional and business community, but also in the way it fosters co-operation between science and ordinary citizens - reinforcing the role of citizen science.