Older people are commonly constructed as a group of heavy users of public services that misses out on opportunities presented online, mainly due to age-related barriers to accessing the internet. Drawing on a study of internet access in sheltered homes for older people, this article argues for the need to focus electronic service provision around the needs, preferences and abilities of the users of public services. A user-centred perspective in e-government and e-service provision requires an understanding of the socially shaped and locally situated nature of media use, which can in turn help prevent the tendency to see chronological age as the sole factor determining (non-) engagement with the internet. It also requires investment in making available assistance and support to access online digital media in order to prevent the disadvantaging of vulnerable service users.

Digital information and communication technologies (ICTs) feature prominently in programmes to promote social inclusion and to implement extensive reform in public service provision across Europe.The transition to an all-digital communications environment and the digital 'switchover' of public services bring to the fore a need to rethink access as a goal of public policy. This paper probes patterns of internet diffusion among disabled people using capabilities framework and resource-based models of access. The analysis highlights the multi-dimensional character of media access capability as the space to evaluate policies for social inclusion; the relational character of disability as a phenomenon of the interface between personal circumstances and structural disadvantage; a capability failure resulting from a gap in policy commitment to promote universal access for disabled people and other excluded groups; and a requirement for policies sensitive to the need for additional resources to equalize the media access capabilities of these individuals.

This article examines converging trends in ageing, digitalisation and datafication in the context of mobility and transport. While mobility data are increasingly captured by (public) transport and mobility as a service (MaaS) providers, Internet of Things (IoT) vehicles, apps and so on, the increasing entanglement of mobility and datafication happens unevenly, for example, in relation to age. This is particularly significant in the light of the rise of data-driven policy-making, and its potential impacts on mobility provision for older people. The article highlights new questions for public policy around data gaps and social inclusion and examines them through a UK case study. The results show that old age and mobility is an area with significant gaps in the data available to policy makers. A key recommendation is for commissioning bodies to develop a strategic approach to structured data gathering and analysis that addresses issues of exclusion from smart public service infrastructure.

Within the context of the intersection of the global megatrends of urbanisation, ageing societies and digitalisation, this paper explores older people’s mobility, with a particular interest in public transport, and a strong consideration of digital/ICT elements. With a focus on (smart) mobility, the paper aims to conceptualise transport, one of the main domains of age-friendly cities as a core element of a smart, age-friendly ecosystem. It also aims to propose a justice-informed perspective for the study of age-friendly smart mobility; to contribute towards a framework for the evaluation of age-friendly smart transport as a core element of the global age-friendly cities programme that comprises mobility practices, digital data, digital networks, material/physical geographies and digital devices and access; and to introduce the term “mobility digital ecosystem” to describe this framework. The paper uses the method of a narrative literature review to weave together a selected range of perspectives from communications, transport, and mobility studies in order to introduce the embeddedness of both communication technology use and mobility practices into their material conditions. Combining insights from communications, mobility and transport and social gerontology with a justice perspective on ICT access and mobility, the paper then develops a framework to study age-friendly smart mobility. What we call a “mobility digital ecosystem” framework comprises five elements—mobility practices, digital data, digital networks, material geographies, digital devices and access to services. The paper contributes a justice-informed perspective that points towards a conceptualisation of age-friendly smart mobility as a core element of the age-friendly cities and communities in the WHO’s global age-friendly cities programme.

Abstract. This paper draws on an empirical investigation of how older people are represented on the websites providing social care service information in the inner London Boroughs. My research questions follow the work of Loos [1] [2] on the relationship between representations of older age, information accessibility and access to digital services. Mirroring Loos and reflecting the specificities of the fieldwork my investigation found older people were largely invisible as a diverse group of citizens in the emerging cultures of digital public service. The images of older adults were few and lacked diversity. Inner London has an ethnically and culturally diverse population yet older adults were commonly represented though images of frail white women. The paper highlights representational politics of older age in digital public service information provision and their consequences for access and social inclusion; intra-generational diversity; ageism as a prevalent form of social discrimination.Keywords: age, ageism, access, inclusion, digital public service, intragenerational diversity IntroductionThis paper draws on an empirical investigation of digital information provision in local government websites to discuss older age, diversity and inclusion in digital public service. Its broader context is the constant increase of ICT innovation, media use and ageing. As an ever increasing range of interpersonal, professional and civic communication activity is today digitally mediated, access to digital information services for a diverse population is essential to transact with government and market actors. In digital information services such as healthcare, mechanisms that control or facilitate our access to the media-technology interfaces (e.g., navigation systems, website design including the representation of their target users) have an impact on our access to services that support independent living, good life and life in the community etc. Media access and diversity are therefore gaining renewed currency. The 'digital turn' can be seen to increase the relevance of those legacy media policy values as well as the complexity and elusiveness that characterizes their implementation. The ageing turn, which is inscribed in the biological and social logic of ageing in our society [3, pp. 94, 102] further accentuates them. This paper is a contribution to the policy discussion of digital media access for a diverse population of older people [1,2,4, 5] in our ageing and ageist societies. The more specific context of the paper relates UK government's 'digital by default' strategy to deliver public service information online/digital only. According to the 2013 Government Digital Strategy (Government Digital Strategy, December 2013 Update, Executive Summary https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/governmentdigital-strategy/ government-digital-strategy) the UK public sector is now moving from multiple channels to delivery of public service information that is online/digital 1 only. Having committed to a target of digital by de...

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This article revisits the concepts of ‘diversity’ and ‘visibility’, from the perspective of age relations to consider how these key metrics in the assessment of social inclusion through media representation can be usefully applied to the analysis of digital public service interfaces. Against the backdrop of changes in the age composition of populations, and an expanding role of digital media in ‘digital by default’ public service provision age remains a neglected dimension of social inequality in media and communications research. This article investigates questions of diversity and social inclusion in old age drawing on a study of visual imagery in public sector websites in the United Kingdom. The analysis integrates insights from media, technology studies, communications policy and critical social gerontology. We identify three patterns in visual imagery: (1) stereotypical representations of group membership as homogenous in terms of age groups, sex, health status and ethnicity, with older adults typically represented as white, (un)healthy men or women; (2) new visibilities, of older adults as socially and culturally diverse groups; and (3) new approaches to inclusive digital service design where age becomes an invisible social demographic. We discuss implications for policy and research into diversity, digitalization and digital public service interfaces.

One significant advantage stemming from the transition to digital television is the increased functionality of services. Digital broadcasting delivers a range of new applications, including interactive services and online connectivity, to the home. Taking as its basis the normative concept of media access, this article overviews ongoing developments in the fields of digital broadcasting and e-government in order to highlight profound implications increased digital functionality has for communications policy. Its empirical focus is on the UK though similar developments are under way across the European Union.There has been an agreement among media scholars that, in order to foster participation in common life, and in the interests of avoiding social exclusion, a broadcasting system should offer audiences shared and adequate access to a diverse and well-balanced menu of services that reflect, and provide for, the information and communication needs of society (cf. McQuail, 1992). Access to public communications may be defined as 'the possibility for individuals, groups of individuals, organisations and institutions to share society's communications resources' (Van Cuilenburg, 1999: 185). In this normative construct common and equal access is a diachronic concept (Van Cuilenburg and McQuail, 2003: 205).The Western European inheritance of public service broadcasting (PSB) can be described as one of common access to a diverse programme menu that is free at the point of reception. This paradigm of PSB as regulated, free-to-air (FTA) provision of generalist programme schedules has been conditioned by technology. Analogue transmission limited the effective spectrum, restricting terrestrial television carriage to a small number of channels. Spectrum limitations made possible the operation of a 'content-biased' regime of regulation 1 during the second half of the 20th century. In the UK for example, terrestrial channels operated under regulation which mandated delivery of a comprehensive menu of generalist programme content. 2 When transmission capacity was limited the number of channels was small and the broadcast services relatively homogeneous across channels, that is, mainly consisting of information and entertainment video transmissions. This meant that, Downloaded from in principle, access to reception equipment secured access to all the medium could offer. Analogue FTA programmes were received by all who obtained a rooftop aerial and a television set. The situation is radically different in digital communications. Digital services will be more and different. The following sections review ongoing developments within and around the fields of public electronic communications and outline challenges for research and policy design. Digital television, Internet access and electronic service deliveryIn September 1999 the UK government announced its intention to terminate all analogue broadcast transmissions and switch over to an all-digital communications environment by the year 2010. In December 2001 the Digital Televisi...