Exploring Areas of Neglect: A Qualitative Study on the Dissemination of Sport Information for Over-65s on Social Media in China

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-271-2_75How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Elderly Chinese; Sport communication; Information cocoon; Psychological anxiety; Social media

Abstract

The background of this study is based on the triple context of the serious trend of China's aging society and the popularity of social media such as WeChat and Kuaishou, as well as the rise of the national sports trend. It was found that people over 65 years of age like to disseminate sports-related information on social media such as WeChat and Kuaishou, but there are few studies on the dissemination of sports for the elderly in the academic world, so this study is able to fill this knowledge gap well. The research questions of this study are centred around two main questions: What are the social motivations driving the dissemination of sports information among individuals aged 65 and above on platforms such as WeChat and Kuaishou? Do the Kuaishou and WeChat evoke physical and mental anxieties among the elderly population when communicating sports-related information? This study will use non-participatory observation method as well as interviews with 18 randomly selected participants based on the information saturation theory. It will also be analysed in conjunction with the information cocoon theory. The research location is mainly in Haizhu District, Guangzhou, because Guangzhou is the capital of Guangdong, with developed medical treatment, and the elderly population can be covered from high education to low education, and the selected population is also radiant and representative. Ultimately, it was found that there are three social reasons behind the elderly's love of spreading sports information: the climbing mentality of friends around them, the information surrounded by news of sports powerhouses, and the concept of fear of being disliked. And as soon as social media spreads sports information, they will not be anxious at first, but if they see more than five messages in a row, they will develop anxiety. At the same time the information cocoon effect of sports information will also increase their anxiety. This study has both theoretical and practical significance, which not only enriches the application of information cocoon theory in sports communication. In addition, it can also find that the elderly who watch more sports information have anxiety, and the state should increase the psychological counselling in this area. In addition, we should also provide sports psychological counselling courses for the elderly, and develop physical and mental health while exercising, and then evolve a series of results to promote the development of the elderly economic industry, such as mental health care, gyms, diets, courses, and sportswear for the elderly. This will not only promote the development of the geriatric economy, but the physical and mental health of the elderly can also be used to support the youth economy. It will also change the stereotypes that young people have about older people. The study can also be derived from a series of thesis research for all sectors of society.

Copyright

© 2024 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Zehao Jiang
AU  - Zhen Wu
AU  - Wenrui Liang
PY  - 2024
DA  - 2024/07/29
TI  - Exploring Areas of Neglect: A Qualitative Study on the Dissemination of Sport Information for Over-65s on Social Media in China
BT  - Proceedings of the 2024 5th International Conference on Mental Health, Education and Human Development (MHEHD 2024)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 617
EP  - 625
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-271-2_75
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-271-2_75
ID  - Jiang2024
ER  -