Adrian Smyth considers the digital lives of his elderly parents, in particular their news consumption habits, and argues it would be a betrayal of their long-term investment in the public service ethos to allow their expectations of truth in the news to fade in the digital age.
My parents have moved into that age demographic commonly referred to as the 'oldest old' - they are both aged over 80, the age group generally considered furthest away from technology's reach. Consequently, they tend to be hidden in media and technology research where they are often represented by the '+' sign such as in '65+'. But there may be such interestingly nuanced differences between their accumulated media and technology experiences and those who might be situated at the bottom of this category.
Digital Management: A sweep of their digital lives reveals they don't tweet, and they don't 'Facebook' - forget about Instagram, Snapchat and WhatsApp. They hear a lot about Twitter and Facebook, but they have neither experience in their use, nor the inclination to engage. They have no knowledge of what is currently understood by a 'news feed'; they don't pause or re-wind live television - they certainly don't 'time-shift' their television viewing. But while the flourishing of social media, especially by way of the smartphone, has left them untroubled, they do however text, but the mobile phones they use are, respectively, of the pre- and entry-level smartphone variety. Furthermore, they are cost-conscious in the use of their phones, and so are disinclined to connect to mobile internet services. In other words they have, to a large extent, very politely waved away the more recent advances of the digital world.
Media Heritage: But their heritages in media and technology consumption are long and rich. My father was born in 1928, just two years after the introduction of Ireland's first radio service, 2RN, and they were both well into adulthood by the time the first indigenous Irish television service began in 1961. Importantly however, they seem to have adjusted to whatever 'disruptions' these technologies brought to their lives over time, and at a pace coterminous to those of the respective technologies. So they have no remarkable memories, say, of moving from valve radio to transistor radio; or of the blossoming of black and white television into colour.
Admittedly, their experiences of transitioning between older technologies were facilitated by the comparatively slow pace at which post-war domestic technologies were introduced to consumers. Also, they may have benefitted from the tendency for 'generations' of technologies to live side-by-side for relatively long periods, thereby allowing the user to become familiar with them more fully over time. So their valve radio ran alongside the upstart transistor; black and white television receivers ran for many years alongside colour sets. By contemporary comparison, the switch off of analogue television services in 2012 seemed harsh to them at the time.
So it is not difficult to appreciate how such experiences of long and steady technological transformations, when set in contemporary contexts, might not work for some people - especially when viewed along more nuanced generational lines. Furthermore, the contemporary acceptance of 'built-in obsolescence' in technologies may be anathema to older generations brought up to conserve; to 'make do'; to not dispense with anything that still appears to be performing its primary function. But beyond any exigencies of the 'medium', there are more pressing concerns for these older news consumers, especially around the 'message'.
Traditional News Gateways: My parents are both avid consumers of news - by way of local and national radio, national and UK television news services, and local, national and UK newspapers. In conversation, they are politically, socially, economically and culturally informed and frequently reference media sources in their re-telling of stories.
Nevertheless, they are firmly rooted to the schedules and delivery systems of the 'legacy' media. These are their primary gateways to news. So they go each morning to the local newsagent to buy the daily paper; they 'tune-in' for the news each hour (on the hour) on local or national radio; they watch the television news (live) at tea-time, and later (live) in the evening; they may watch a late-night current affairs television discussion programme (live) - often, and this is significant, regardless of whether they have any pre-knowledge or pre-interest in the subject in question.
In daily practice, if there is a significant story of local interest they tune first to their local radio station; if the story is of national significance, they go instinctively to RTE; if the story relates to the UK or the wider world, they turn to the BBC. In other words, they are the essence of discernment in news consumption: they go to the source, and they go to the source they trust most to tell the story most accurately. Instinctive actions, but actions fashioned over lifetimes largely in the thrall of pure public service news provision.
No 'News Feeds': So set against the the contemporary - digital - scheme of things, what exactly are they missing out on? Well, the aforementioned 'news feeds' for a start. They are not eternally 'plugged-in' to the news stream. Rather, in terms of the broadcast media they engage with (TV and radio) they wait for the news to be delivered and presented to them when it's deemed ready by the broadcaster.
Also, it might seem they are limited in terms of the 'plurality' of their news services in that they are relying on the traditional, mostly public-service or regulated sources of broadcast news. But rightly or wrongly - and this is critical for them - they are drawing on sources they have come to trust over their lifetimes to provide news information that is balanced and fair; that comes with a particular heritage of authority and accuracy. While their notion of 'authority' may be questioned in the modern world, these are nevertheless the primary qualities they demand of their news providers; and these are expectations that should still be salutary for anyone operating anywhere along the chain of news provision. They are respectful and appreciative of the professional presentation of news, but having, over a lifetime, ingested the codes of 'traditional' news presentation, they are not ready to let them go. So they can easily discern and dismiss any service that falls below their expectations. But above all, there remains for them an element of trust, and being aware of this should remind news providers - of all generations and platforms - of the immense responsibilities that are theirs; that there are still traces in news audiences of the plain expectation that there be more than a modicum of truth in what they are being told.
Adrian Smyth is a PhD candidate with the Dublin Institute of Technology School of Media, where he is researching the digital lives of older people in Ireland.
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