Active Voices and Analogue Natives: German and Japanese Media Representations of Digital Technologies and Older Adults during the Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

This article presents a comparative analysis of media coverage of digital technologies and older adults from March 2020 until February 2022 in the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) and the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun (AS). We identified two views of the impact of the increasing use of technologies on older adults: digital services as an opportunity (e.g. virtual medical consultations), and as a risk (e.g. services may exclude people unfamiliar with devices or applications). Three common narratives were identified: a) the pandemic exposed a lack of digital inclusion of older adults, b) the lack of care personnel poses challenges, and c) older adults feel disadvantaged especially in financial transactions. While AS featured diverse voices of older adults and presented “senior digital role models”, FAZ reported on seniors’ strengths as “analogue natives”. In conclusion to the findings, we offer recommendations for building a more inclusive digital society.