@inproceedings{01HKS8EV2QK6Y5YTYCY3NFFPQT,
  abstract     = {{Ageism is a very broad phenomenon that encompasses the stereotypes, prejudices and discrimination based on age. It can manifest itself in diverse ways and it pertains to all ages. This makes ageism unique, as it is one of the few forms of discrimination we all might experience someday. The term was coined by Butler in 1969 and has since its original conceptualization been used in many research domains. The focus of this paper will be on ageism towards seniors, more specifically regarding their representation in children’s content broadcasted in Flanders. Research on representation of age, children content, and the Flemish context are still scarce, let alone when combining these three domains. Part of the lack of research on children content may be in line with a (western) societal perception that childhood is just a transition phase to adulthood, a phase in which children don’t really understand the complex meanings communicated by the media, hence leading to a perception of children content as a less valuable form of content. However, television does provide children with symbolic imagery of how old people look and behave and co-constructs cultural meaning around age and ageing in general. 
Previous research found a serious underrepresentation of seniors in children content. Besides the lack of representation, these characters often get portrayed in stereotypical or non-diverse ways, the latter both in terms of identity and the roles they are assigned. An example is the way older characters are solely ‘used’ as supporting roles for younger characters. The trope of the "wise old mentor”, as well as the role of grandparents perpetuates the idea that the elderly only exist to support and serve (‘young’) others, having no needs or desires of their own. 
This paper proposes the general research question of ‘how often and how are elderly being represented in children television content broadcasted in Flanders?’. This research question will be answered through a quantitative content analysis. By means of an explorative literature review a codebook was constructed. The first subquestion addresses the number of older characters in the sample. The second component focuses on intersectionality and the present (crossing) identities that could be found in these characters. Lastly there is a focus on present recurring narratives and stereotypes. 
This study examines the Flemish television landscape aimed at children between 6 and 12 years. Recent trends such as streaming services and online websites of content providers are taken into account beside the linear scheduling. Three local Flemish broadcasters, namely the public broadcaster Ketnet and two commercial broadcasters Studio 100 Television and VTMKIDS, as well as three transnational players Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network and Disney Channel, and two streaming services, Netflix and Disney+, are included. The programs were recorded during three months, namely August 2022, October 2022 and March 2023 as to account for the three ‘programming waves’. This results in 14 days of each content provider, scattered in composed weeks. In the end 210 hours of content will be analyzed to give answer to the research question.}},
  author       = {{Bossuyt, Linde and Van Bauwel, Sofie and Joye, Stijn}},
  booktitle    = {{IAMCR 2023 : inhabiting the planet : challenges for media, communication and beyond, Proceedings}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  location     = {{Lyon, France}},
  pages        = {{1--6}},
  title        = {{Growing pains : the representation of older characters in children content}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}