Media portrayal of life stages: Analysis of photos posted on Swedish municipal Facebook pages

This study aims to investigate how Swedish municipalities visually portray citizens at different life stages on Facebook, with a special emphasis on age stereotypes in the photos used. The analysis is based on an assemblage of various features of the photos to describe the relations between signs, activities and contexts associated with life stages. The results suggest that older people are repetitively portrayed in coffee drinking and foot bathing activities, while adolescence is significantly depicted as the participants in practical training organized by high schools. Certain minorities of citizens are insufficiently presented, such as people with disabilities, migrants and people with dementia.