Defying Ageist Stereotypes—Elders as TV News Content Producers the Case of—Senior TV

Today, in our increasingly digital society elders, who traditionally are not seen as content creators, have been overlooked. However, they are becoming increasingly active online, and video content, as what happens with TV, is starting to play a major role in their lives. This is due to the increased availability of Internet connectivity and less expensive methods of producing video content (e.g., smartphones, tablets and computers). In this sense, in this study we want to address the role that TV and TV news have in the lives of older people and see what changes would occur if they produced the content. To do this, we are developing the project “Senior TV”—a audiovisual production study that is being conducted at the Higher School of Education and Social Sciences of the Polytechnic of Leiria – Portugal, where a group of senior students are producing TV news contents (interviews and TV reports) both in studio and in exterior productions and broadcasting them on YouTube.