Television Use in a Retirement Community

Abstract

Mass media scholarship traditionally has depicted elderly viewers of television as an accepting and homogeneous audience. This ethnographic study of a retirement community researches the relationship between individuals and their community in the development of discourse that influences program choices and discussion of content. In this community of well-educated, upper middle-class retirees, interest in living in the present, a preference for quality television, and an insistence on “serious” leisure urge residents toward what they consider to be television's premium programs, including C-SPAN and related public affairs programming. Viewers of these shows discuss them with their neighbors and use what they learn from them to participate in the public process.

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