The Social Status of the Elderly in the Family with an Emphasis on TV Role: Survey of Tehrani Senior Citizens

Abstract

The present study is a qualitative survey of the role of TV in transformingsenior citizens' social status in the city of Tehran. Interviews were carriedout with the statistical population of the research, i.e. senior citizens, eachtaking more than an hour, the most important results of which haveappeared in this article. The basic research question was: What status doTehrani senior citizens consider for themselves among their families?What role do they think TV plays in this regard? The result obtainedfrom these in-depth interviews with those who were selected withtargeted sampling method revealed that as regards their social, economic,and physical status, there have been traces of disappointments with theirfamilies; and concerning the cause of this situation, they pointed out theattenuation of religious and cultural values. Few seniors assumed apivotal status in their families and more of them believed that they weremissing the kind of respect they deserved and were mostly treated asmarginal. Moreover, the seniors whose surrounding family memberswere too much busy with watching satellite programs thought to beneglected by their children. TV itself has shown a weak performance inproducing programs for elevating senior citizens' status. Sending seniorsto nursing homes is also the result of children's ingratitude and theireconomic problems. In their responses, the seniors also referred to thenecessity of respecting their dignity, providing media programs for theirtraining and education, supporting them financially, and providingamusement and health facilities for them.

Keywords

• seniors' social status
• tehrani seniors
• media role