Place-Making through Media: How Media Environments Make a Difference for Long-Term Care Residents’ Agency
Societies
; 12(1):27, 2022.
Article
in English
| ProQuest Central | ID: covidwho-1715652
ABSTRACT
This paper explores the unique relationships care home residents have with communication media. Drawing on findings from an ethnographic case study at a long-term care site in British Columbia, Canada, I describe how care home residents’ everyday media practices are intertwined with their negotiations of longstanding attachments and new living spaces. The research draws connections between the spatiotemporal contexts of media use and residents’ experiences of social agency. Long-term care residents in this research were challenged to engage with the wider community, maintain friendships, or stay current with events and politics because their preferred ways of using communication media were not possible in long-term care. The communication inequalities experienced by care home residents were not simply about their lack of access to media or content but about their inability to find continuity with their established media habits in terms of time and place. While most research about communication media in care homes has been intervention oriented, this research suggests that long-term care service and funding policies require greater attention to create flexible, diverse, and supportive media environments.
Social Sciences: Comprehensive Works; older adults’ media practices; older adults’ media biographies; long-term care; social isolation in later life; social agency; person-centered care; information and communication technology (ICT); life course perspective; communicative ecology mapping; focused ethnography; Flooring; Ethnography; Collaboration; Communication; Nursing homes; Media; Mass media; Case studies; Older people; Medical supplies; Cognitive ability; Interviews; COVID-19; Long term health care; Inequality; Pandemics; Medical research; Coronaviruses; Communication research; Vancouver Island; Canada; British Columbia Canada
Full text:
Available
Collection:
Databases of international organizations
Database:
ProQuest Central
Language:
English
Journal:
Societies
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
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