The supply of cultural products also needs to be 'aging friendly'
2024-11-22
The spiritual and cultural needs of the middle-aged and elderly population need to be met, especially with the increasing networking of daily life and leisure activities, online spiritual life "aging friendly" needs more attention. Since the beginning of this year, topics such as "middle-aged and elderly themed micro dramas becoming popular" and "middle-aged and elderly themed micro dramas targeting parents' wallets" have attracted continuous attention. While micro dramas enrich the spiritual and cultural life of middle-aged and elderly people, there are indeed some creative phenomena that intentionally create conflicts, exaggerate and go against the trend of the times, and values that need to be regulated and guided. From the data, middle-aged and elderly audiences have become the mainstream audience for micro dramas. The 2024 Research Report on China's Short Drama Industry shows that users aged 40 to 59 account for 37.3%, while users aged 60 and above account for 12.1%. Some micro drama production companies will focus their efforts on middle-aged and elderly themes. The screenwriter of a leading micro drama company revealed that middle-aged and elderly micro dramas are now an independent product line of the company, and nearly half of the future works will be laid out in this product line. At present, existing micro dramas with middle-aged and elderly themes often revolve around topics that are most concerned about by the middle-aged and elderly population, such as children and elderly care, in order to meet the needs of emotional communication and peer socialization among the audience. They also focus on leveraging the compact rhythm and dense reversal characteristics of micro dramas to enhance audience stickiness. Why middle-aged and elderly? It should be noted that the continuous emergence of micro dramas with middle-aged and elderly themes is largely due to creators seizing the niche market and targeting the gap in themes. In the current diverse choices of people's spiritual and cultural life, the weight of online literature and art is increasing day by day. Because of its Internet nature, online literature and art has always been highly dependent on young users, focusing on the aesthetic preferences and cultural needs of young people in terms of type, form, theme and content. Micro dramas are no exception, often leaving people with a youthful and youthful image. However, after the initial honeymoon period with young audiences, due to homogenization and standardization in production, coupled with the impact of a large number of free resources, the loss of young audiences has become an undeniable fact in the micro drama industry. In contrast, the demand for watching dramas among middle-aged and elderly people has only increased. On the one hand, "sunset red" has become an important force in adding new netizens. In the first half of this year, the population aged 60 and above accounted for 20.8% of the newly added internet users nationwide. On the other hand, compared to young people, middle-aged and elderly audiences are not as adept at resource search and lack real-time artistic consumption methods. Micro dramas, whether in terms of recommendation methods, viewing methods, or payment models, are convenient and fast, timely meeting the needs of middle-aged and elderly audiences. Short dramas with middle-aged and elderly themes, in order to attract attention, have gone against the trend of vulgarity and vulgarity in their views on marriage, family, and ethics, and even produced "unhealthy tendencies" in their payment models. This phenomenon should be resisted and management and supervision should be strengthened. However, at the same time, we need to recognize that the spiritual and cultural needs of the middle-aged and elderly population need to be met, especially with the increasing networking of daily life and leisure activities, and the need for more attention to the "aging friendly" online spiritual life. Literary and artistic products with high-quality content, fast opening methods, and the ability to provide emotional resonance and spiritual comfort are highly anticipated by the middle-aged and elderly population, and more support mechanisms and creative forces are also inclined towards this field. In terms of hardware, with the accelerated popularization of network applications and the continuous improvement of digital technology to adapt to aging, the digital divide between groups continues to bridge. In August this year, the report released by China Internet Network Information Center showed that more than 2700 websites and APPs closely related to the lives of the elderly and the disabled have completed aging and barrier free transformation. In the silver haired theaters launched by some video websites, the interface operation, including the "big character mode", is more in line with the preferences and habits of the "silver haired generation", bringing middle-aged and elderly audiences closer to online audiovisual. In terms of content, targeted subject matter creation targeting middle-aged and elderly audiences continues to strengthen. In May of this year, the TV drama "Old Guy" landed on Beijing TV and Jiangsu TV, with impressive ratings. There were also follow-up dramas such as the elderly family drama "Old Home" and the story of an old police officer "Trident 2", which were highly anticipated by the audience. The "Revisiting Classics" channel, guided by the State Administration of Radio and Television, has been widely popular since its launch in February this year, with a cumulative viewership of over 61 million households. The industry management also encourages more audiovisual works to shape the image of middle-aged and elderly characters who are kind, loving, wise, open-minded, brave, and strong in their old age. It encourages themes based on filial piety, love for the elderly, mutual assistance among neighbors, and social harmony, and encourages the creation of stories that depict the achievements of middle-aged and elderly people in the new era, and contribute their "silver hair power" to family civilization, social development, and national progress. By the end of 2023, the elderly population aged 65 and above in China will exceed 216 million, accounting for 15.4% of the total population. 'Enjoying oneself in old age' not only brings about a prosperous material life, but also a rich spiritual world. The vigorous development of Internet technology will play an important role in enriching the spiritual and cultural life of the elderly and helping to build a society for the elderly. This requires literary and artistic workers to leverage technology and make good use of media to continuously explore new approaches in improving the quantity and quality of literary and artistic products, achieving the unity of social and economic attributes, and combining cultural and market values. (New Society)
Edit：Chen Jie Responsible editor：Li Ling
Source：People's Daily
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