Older adults on prime-time television in Taiwan: Prevalence, portrayal, and communication interaction (China)

A content and thematic analysis of 109 episodes of prime-time dramas examined the portrayals of aging and the nature of intergenerational interaction involving older adults on Taiwanese television. The content analysis revealed that older characters, regardless of sex, appeared less frequently and in less prominent roles than other adult characters, but not in comparison to adolescents and children. The older characters who did appear, however, were predominantly portrayed as cognitively sound and physically healthy. The thematic analysis provided a different picture, showing that older characters talked about age explicitly, strategically linking it to death and despondence to influence younger characters. Communication behavior themes identified included supporting, superiority, and controlling for older characters, and reverence/respect for younger characters. Findings are compared to those from similar studies of U.S. media and discussed from a Cultivation Theory perspective in terms of their reinforcement of Chinese age stereotypes and the traditional values of filial piety and age hierarchy. The potential implications of this emphasis on traditional values for intergenerational relationships in Taiwan are explored in the context of research on the shift in cultural values that has occurred among younger individuals in Chinese and other East Asian cultures.