Visual ageism on public organisations' websites

The visualisation of older people as a group in the media can play a role in stereotype formation and reinforce stereotypes. It can even negatively impact older people’s self-esteem, health status, physical wellbeing and cognitive performance. Although empirical studies have been conducted on such visual representation, only a limited number of studies have focused on the way public organisations visually represent older people in their digital communications. This chapter therefore first presents and discusses insights from the field of the visual representation of older people and the concept of ‘visual ageism’ – ‘the social practice of visually under-representing older people or misrepresenting them in a prejudiced way’ (Loos and Ivan, 2018, p 164). Then, a semiotic approach will be used to analyse how public organisations across a range of European countries use pictures about relevant products and services and represent older people on their websites. Finally, conclusions, limitations of the research and implications for future research will be presented.