A Comparative Study On Senior Websites In China And Australia

Since the beginning of the twenty-first century,population aging has become one of the top hotspots across the world.China is not an exception.The tremendous increase of aged population,high speed of population aging together with its effects on both Chinese economy and society has caused serious consequences.The Third Plenary Session of the 18 th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China pointed out that it was necessary for China to face up against population aging actively and build up social welfare system and service industries for the old in with quicker paces.This means that China pays great attention to the spiritual life of the old and encourages civil cultural industries for the old people.As an vital part of social development,media has the task of cultural heritage.Being the major media for the old citizens,senior media will develop combing with both opportunities and challenges in the future.The development of new media technology prompts the quick growing of internet media.Senior websites in current social background are more spurred to grab this chance to take shape and make contribution for the old people fitting themselves into network age and serve senior citizen.Nevertheless,senior websites in China currently cannot meet the diversified spiritual demands of the old people.For one part,there is a growing trend for the old people to know large amount of information.For the other,the quality and quantity of existing senior websites differ greatly and there are too many uncertainties for the future of these websites,leaving people from both academic fields and website industry much to think about in no time.This thesis starts with the development of both Chinese and Australian senior websites,concluding the features of senior websites of both countries.Several senior websites are chosen from both China and Australia for comparison and analysis:government websites such as National Senior Committee(China)and Aging and Aged Care(Australia),websites of traditional media in the form of new media like Laoren.com(China)and The Senior(Australia),private websites like xywq.com(China)and Your Life Choices(Australia),special websites such as ltxjob.com(China)and Older Workers(Australia).The comparison will be fully conducted in the aspects of webpage settings,accessibility,updating frequency and online-offline interactions so that the specific differences could be found between Chinese senior websites and those in Australia,where population aging came into being much earlier and social welfare system is much complete,the structures of senior websites are much sufficient.The comparison between these two countries shows the weakness in the awareness of services in Chinese senior websites with same modes and less advantages among different webpages.Based on the comparison above and the unique physical and biological features of senior citizens,this thesis is set to explore the strategies for the development for Chinese senior websites,which should be maintained according to international status and domestic situations.It is required to turn to a new page and improve humanitarian care and qualities of senior websites in view of characteristics of Chinese senior citizens.Furthermore,the internal management of websites should be enhanced to provide better user experience and extend online-offline communications.