Old people, video games and french press: A topic model approach on a study about discipline, entertainment and self-improvement.

Authors

  • Gabrielle Lavenir Concordia University
  • Nicolas Bourgeois Université Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne, SAMM

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7146/mediekultur.v33i63.24749

Keywords:

Video Games, Ageing, Press, Lexicometry, Topic Model

Abstract

Over the past few years, the French mainstream press has paid more and more attention to "silver gamers", adults over sixty who play video games. This article investigates the discursive and normative paradigms that underlie the unexpected enthusiasm of the French mainstream press for older adults who play video games. We use mixed methods on a corpus of French, Swiss and Belgian articles that mention both older people and video games. First, we produce topics, that is, sets of words related by their meanings and identified with a Bayesian statistical algorithm. Second, we cross the topic model results with a discursive analysis of selected articles. We preface the topic modeling's conclusions with a discussion of the representations of older people and video games in European French-language mainstream media. Our analysis explores how the press coverage of older people who play video games simultaneously erases moral panic about video games and reinforces the discourse of "successful ageing".

Author Biographies

Gabrielle Lavenir, Concordia University

PhD student, Concordia University, Sociology and Anthropology department

Nicolas Bourgeois, Université Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne, SAMM

Associate professor in Computer Science, Paris 1

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Published

2017-11-02

How to Cite

Lavenir, G., & Bourgeois, N. (2017). Old people, video games and french press: A topic model approach on a study about discipline, entertainment and self-improvement. MedieKultur: Journal of Media and Communication Research, 33(63), 20 p. https://doi.org/10.7146/mediekultur.v33i63.24749

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Articles: Theme section