Digital Cultural Engagement of Elderly Audiences: Concepts, Perspectives and Examples within Academic Research

Abstract

Digital technologies have transformed and continue to transform the way culture is produced, that is, the way it is presented, transmitted and consumed by the (inter)active audience. We consider it particularly important to examine and identify the concepts, perspectives and examples of digital cultural engagement of elderly audiences within academic research, given that the world population is aging and the elderly people are an important actor in socio-cultural processes, especially because younger generations are associated with new technologies by default. The main research question is: “What academic research has been done on the topic of digital cultural engagement of elderly audiences in the last ten years (2013-2023)?” As a research technique we used rapid literature review because our approach in this case is not analytical and critical as it comprises summarizing and synthesizing. The results show a noticeable solid presence of research papers that take into account the digital engagement of the elderly and the cultural engagement of the elderly as separate processes. However, there are few research papers that elaborate the topic of digital cultural engagement of the elderly from a communicological point of view.