Abstract
I denne oppgaven har jeg undersøkt hvilken rolle og betydning fjernsynet har i eldres hverdag. Studien er basert på kvalitative intervjuer med 10 mannlige og 10 kvinnelige pensjonister, likt fordelt mellom øst og vest i Oslo. Spiller fjernsynet samme eller ulik rolle for mannlige og kvinnelige eldre og for de med forskjellig sosial bakgrunn?
Studien viser at fjernsynet har flerfoldige og varierende betydninger for eldre. En viktig variabel for å forstå de eldres forhold til og bruk av fjernsynet er tidsorientering. Jeg fant at informantene kan deles inn i tre kategorier avhengig av deres tidsorientering. Fjernsynet har noe ulik betydning for disse tre grupper. Generelt spiller fjernsynet en viktig rolle for eldres strukturering av hverdagen, men ser ut til å ha en mindre fremtredende rolle i sosial sammenheng. Sosial klasse ser ut til å være viktigere enn kjønn for hvordan betegne de eldres forhold til fjersynsseing. Studien trekker på tidligere forskning om eldre og fjernsyn, gerontologi og etnografi.
The goal of this study is to get insight into which role television plays in the everyday life of elderly. The qualitative interview is the method employed for the investigation and the analysis is based on interviews with 10 men and 10 women, equally distributed between residences in the eastern and western part of Oslo. Does television play a different role for retired women versus retired men and can dissimilarities be found between elderly with different social background?
The results from this study shows that television has multiple and varying functions for elderly. An important variable for the understanding of retired people s relation to and use of television is time orientation. I found that the informants might be divided into three groups dependent on their time orientation, and it appears like the role of television is somewhat different between these groups. In general, television is important for the elderly in terms of structuring their everyday life, whereas its role as a topic of conversation and social unifier is of minor importance. Social background is more prominent than gender when differences in elderly s television routines are considered. Relevant theory from gerontology and ethnography is presented and the findings are discussed in the light of previous studies on elderly and television.