Older Audiences and Digital Media: Focus on Romania

This report discusses descriptive results of the Computer Assisted Telephone based Survey (CATI) conducted in Romania in December 2016. The present survey is part of the international project Cross-National Longitudinal Study: Older Audiences in the Digital Media Environment (see www.actproject.ca/), and it is planned to be conducted every two years, in three waves, on the same sample of older adults. The sample is representative for the online population of people 60 years old and above living in Romania. The results show that TV is the most important media channel for this age group, followed by radio. Also, we can talk about a specialization of media consume at older people, with Television and television set playing a central role, followed by radio (and radio set), whereas newspapers and magazines are accessed both online and offline. One important incentive for older people to go online and try different mediated communication options is to share their life routine with family and friends. While the Internet becomes a communication medium used all over the paces, older people preferred using it in their own private homes. The report also indicates the important role of mediated communication in interpersonal communication mechanisms in the case of older people.