Cross-cultural studies of advertising representations of older people are relatively scarce. This article aims to fill in this gap via a comparison between Taiwan and the United Kingdom, employing a combination of quantitative content analysis and the qualitative grounded theory method. The content-analysis phase reveals underrepresentation of older people in both countries' advertising contexts, as well as representational differences between Taiwan and the United Kingdom in terms of older characters' role salience, the products, physical settings, and social networks they are associated with. The grounded-theory phase yields nine prototypes of older people along with subcategories to conceptualize the qualities of older people as they appear in TV ads in these countries. The findings are discussed in relation to the stereotyping of older people and transformed into hypothetical statements to be modified in future research. In conclusion, the Confucian tradition of filial piety is still found to be important in explaining the observed cross-cultural differences, but the emergence of new norms about aging in Taiwanese advertising also suggests that this tradition may be in decline.

Abstract:Using an analytic network process (ANP) as an analytical tool, this study aims to construct an ANP evaluation model of interactive website design indicators. Through a review of the literature, interactive website design of e-entrepreneurship is generalized to the following dimensions: (1) Design; (2) Checking; (3) Service; (4) Interactive; and (5) Promotion, including 19 design indicators. The research is conducted for a case company. According to the findings, the model helps the case company review its current execution of interactive website design indicators and the experts' opinions of the importance of interactive website design indicators. In addition, by comprehensive comparison, it confirms key design indicators and analyzes the managerial implications to help the case company set up precise strategic planning and resource distribution to enhance corporate operational performance and competitiveness.

This study extends gerontological sociolinguistics by investigating how older Taiwanese adults disclosed their age and the relevant conversational sequences around their age-telling behaviours in first-encounter talks with college students. The 13-pair young-old conversational data were coded using Coupland, Coupland, Giles and Henwood’s (1991) six age-telling strategies, and 70 age-telling utterances were identified. Frequency analysis of the age-telling utterances indicated that the older participants mostly constructed their older-age identities by referring to age-related roles and to historical changes they had witnessed. Conversation analysis suggested that both of these age-telling strategies could endow older people with greater power by casting them in roles such as information-givers or proud grandparents, and ascribe positive qualities to their age group. However, the data raised concerns that age-telling conversations could also sometimes be disenfranchising and the younger interlocutors’ minimal responses to such talks were common. Wider implications of the findings for intergenerational communication are discussed in the conclusion.