A tale as old as time: A qualitative content analysis on the representation of ageing in children’s television available in Flanders

Children’s television plays a significant role as a storyteller, shaping societal perceptions through entertainment narratives. These stories inform children’s worldview on age and ageing, raising questions about how older adults are represented. To address this underexplored genre and topic, this paper conducts a qualitative content analysis. A total of 653 episodes, stemming from various content providers available in the Flemish television landscape, are analyzed to study how ageing is represented, focusing specifically on character development, dialogue, appearance, and relationships, as well as recurring tropes from previous research. This study highlights the distinctiveness of the children’s television genre in its portrayal of older characters. A dominant theme is the discourse of “age as decline”, often emphasizing physical decline and disability. These portrayals often appear in humorous contexts, serving as an ambiguous tool, capable of both challenging and reinforcing stereotypes. The genre’s inherent association with youth further amplifies anxieties around ageing, especially for female characters, whose portrayals often link to physical appearance and reflect gendered biases. On a more positive note, older characters are frequently depicted in intergenerational relationships, most commonly as grandparents and mentors. Yet, they are often confined to these supporting roles that primarily facilitate the development of younger protagonists.