(1) Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has been especially hard on the elderly owing to their particular vulnerability to the virus. Their confinement to prevent the spread of the virus resulted in social isolation, often linked to the unwanted loneliness that hinders their emotional well-being. The enabling capacity of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) to overcome the negative effects of this isolation requires special attention. The purpose of this research is to understand the impact of the use of ICT on the emotional well-being of elderly people during their confinement. (2) Methods: A qualitative exploration method based on four focus groups with elderly people aged 60 years or older and three in-depth personal interviews with experts in education of the elderly were carried out. (3) Results: Research results evidence a negative emotional impact of the confinement (lack of physical contact with their loved ones, fear and uncertainty, feeling of loneliness, sadness at the loss of family members) on the emotional well-being of study participants. Furthermore, the operational capacity of ICT to prevent infection, as well as their positive emotional and humanizing role in providing access to entertainment and hobbies, and in improving self-esteem was also acknowledged. (4) Conclusions: ICT have become a valuable ally for elderly people aged 60 years and older to mitigate the negative effects of social isolation and loneliness imposed by the confinement.

With a few exceptions, media visibility and representation of people with disabilities is scarce. It is biased and anchored in stigma, distorting their image and hindering their full social participation. Paralympic sport is one of the social fields where the challenge of an objective representation of disability becomes particularly important due to the ever-increasing amount of television attention to the Paralympic Games as a global sports event and some persisting stereotypes in media representation of athletes with disabilities. Through an exploratory and interpretive research method, aimed at assessing media visibility of disability from the perspective of content production and its dissemination, the paper reviews the evolution of media representation of the Paralympic Games and athletes with disabilities during Sochi 2014, Rio 2016, and PyeongChang 2018 global sports events in the daily news programs from the National Spanish Broadcaster, RTVE. The effective inclusion of people with disabilities in the public sphere and a progressive removal of stereotypes and stigma depends to a great extent on the visibility and objective representation of disability in media.

Global ageing has led European and international organizations to develop programs for active ageing, in order to reconstruct the role of the elderly in society. Active ageing includes social communication aspects which have been the subject of less research than other more pressing ones linked to physical and economic characteristics. This research is centered on these communication variables; it addresses the link between the elderly and Internet, and has two main objectives: to discover how useful Internet is for this age group, and to explain the potential this medium has for active ageing. To do so, a qualitative methodology is used based on three discussion groups, each made up of four or five people between the ages of 56 and 81, led by an expert moderator. The results of the qualitative content analysis of each discussion indicate that the Internet is a source of opportunities for the elderly, and this potential may be divided into four categories: Information, communication, transactions and administration, together with leisure and entertainment. This potential improves the quality of life for the elderly and contributes to their active ageing. However, to maximize this, e-inclusion programs and methodologies are needed to make the Internet user-friendlier for the elderly and provide them with training in digital skills.El progresivo envejecimiento de las sociedades ha llevado a los organismos internacionales y europeos a desarrollar programas de envejecimiento activo, capaces de construir una nueva cultura sobre el papel de las personas mayores en la sociedad. Estos incluyen aspectos sociales de carácter comunicacional que, sin embargo, han tenido menos desarrollo investigador que otros más apremiantes, vinculados a aspectos físicos y económicos. Esta investigación atiende precisamente a estas variables comunicacionales, abordando la vinculación de los mayores con Internet y planteándose dos objetivos principales: Conocer las utilidades que tiene Internet para este colectivo y explicar los motivos que convertirían a este medio en una fuente de oportunidades para un envejecimiento activo. Para satisfacerlos, se utiliza una metodología cualitativa que se apoya en el desarrollo de tres grupos de discusión constituidos por entre cinco y seis personas de 56 a 81 años y moderados por un experto. Los resultados obtenidos del análisis cualitativo del contenido en cada discusión indican que Internet es una fuente de oportunidades para los mayores, que pueden aglutinarse en cuatro categorías: informativas, comunicativas, transaccionales y administrativas, y de ocio y entretenimiento. Estas oportunidades optimizan la calidad de vida de los mayores y contribuyen a su envejecimiento activo, si bien, su máximo aprovechamiento precisa de programas de «e-Inclusion» y metodologías que aproximen Internet a los mayores, facilitándoles una formación en competencias digitales.

The new digital panorama has enhanced the importance of the Internet, as well as Information and Communications Technology (ICT), in developing a society in which seniors play a proactive role. The main purpose of this article is to define a taxonomy of silver surfers according to the ways they use the Internet and ICT, with a special focus on e-commerce and e-government. A quantitative methodology was used, based on the study of 405 Spanish internet users between 60 and 79 years of age, which was conducted by telephone in February of 2019. Seven groups were identified through a combination of dimensionality reduction techniques and cluster analysis. The results indicate neither a consistent pattern in the specific ways older adults use the Internet nor a homogeneous level of digital knowledge among this demographic group. To some extent, this is a result of disparities in both the perception of digital security that seniors associate with e-commerce and/or e-government and the level of trust engendered by such operations. The Able and Daring are the most numerous clusters, which coincide with the categories of the most active and prepared users. The Sceptical take third place in terms of number of users, as they display limited use of the Internet and claim to have a low digital skills level. However, carrying out both online shopping and administrative procedures without the need for assistance is becoming increasingly frequent among all of those surveyed.

El branded content se ha impuesto como una de las estrategias creativas de las marcas más eficaces para lograr un contacto cómplice con sus públicos. Las exigencias del panorama comunicativo actual han obligado a los anunciantes a apostar por la creatividad para ofrecer contenidos de valor que involucren al target en la construcción misma de la marca. El propósito de esta investigación es identificar y explicar los atributos creativos del branded content mediante una metodología cualitativa. Para ello, se ha diseñado un modelo de registro analítico, fundamentado en teorías previas, que se ha aplicado a una muestra constituida por las 23 piezas galardonadas con un gran premio y/o un oro en el Festival “El Sol” durante sus últimas seis ediciones. Los resultados permiten delinear un patrón creativo de éxito en las estrategias de branded content, que ha permanecido estable en los últimos años, y responde a contenidos con objetivos afectivos, a menudo apoyados en matices comportamentales y/o cognitivos; insights que combinan, principalmente, aspectos emocionales y culturales, y que articulan promesas en forma de beneficios para el consumidor; argumentaciones emocionales; tonos cercanos y empáticos que utilizan formatos como el storytelling o la analogía; y conceptos indirectos para transmitir las promesas.