Vermeer, Y;
Higgs, P;
Charlesworth, G;
(2020)
Selling surveillance technology: semiotic themes in advertisements for ageing in place with dementia.
Social Semiotics
10.1080/10350330.2020.1767399.
(In press).
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Abstract
Six advertisements were explored that sell surveillance technologies for people living with dementia through qualitative content analysis. Advertisements from the United Kingdom, Sweden, and the Netherlands were analysed to explore semiotic textual meaning and people living with dementia (N = 5) and carers (N = 4) responded to these advertisements. The semiotic themes report a “wanderer” discourse which signals to track people living with dementia, children pets and possessions. Mainly negative representations communicate the dangers of wandering towards younger-female carers, few positive representations show a smiling person with dementia and only one person was represented as interacting with technology. Participants did not understand the advertisements and people living with dementia felt stigmatised. There is a lack of reflexivity when people living with dementia are seen as objects. The reliance on stereotypes targeted at carers with misunderstood conceivable trackers hinders resilience for people living with dementia and implies the continuous stigmatisation that occurs when they are disregarded as human technology-users.
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