European local authorities increasingly use social media to present services and activities organized for citizens living in the particular area. Previous studies found that authority-managed social media visually depicted older adults as being active, sociable, happy, and physically capable, reflecting the normative “third age” representation. Yet few studies to date have examined how local authorities produce the photos of older adults for social media posting. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with communication officers in a Swedish municipality, the purpose of this study is to investigate the production process for social media photos of older adults within local authorities from an institutional logics perspective. The analysis illustrates that communication officers strive to create a good image of the municipality and its services, follow municipal policy and EU law on data protection, seek photos through particular sources, adjust to and develop photographic standards of good photos, and endeavor to promote social media engagement in the photos. These motives and work practices of communication officers contribute to the visual representations of older adults as engaging in municipal services, being socially active, and staying physically capable. The analysis also indicates that both social media and bureaucratic logics encourage officers to produce photos of older adults that highlight the bright side of later life. The findings contribute to previous studies on online representations of older adults generated by local authorities, by showing how the third age representation may come about in practice, and which logics may influence officers to generate such representation. Furthermore, the knowledge provided could be used as a basis for assessment and improvement on authorities' production for social media photos of older adults, which in turn contributes to more diverse and thoughtful representations of older adults and later life in authority-managed social media.

欧洲地方当局越来越多地使用社交媒体来展示为居住在特定地区的公民组织的服务和活动。以前的研究发现，权威管理的社交媒体在视觉上将老年人描绘成活跃、善于交际、快乐和身体能力强，反映了规范的“第三年龄”表征。然而，迄今为止，很少有研究调查地方当局如何制作老年人照片以供社交媒体发布。本研究利用对瑞典某市通信官员的半结构化访谈，从制度逻辑的角度调查地方当局内部老年人社交媒体照片的制作过程。分析表明，通信官员努力为市政府及其服务创造良好形象，遵循市政政策和欧盟数据保护法律，通过特定来源寻找照片，调整和制定好照片的摄影标准，并努力促进社交媒体对照片的参与。沟通官员的这些动机和工作实践有助于将老年人形象化为从事市政服务、社交活跃和保持身体能力。分析还表明，社交媒体和官僚逻辑都鼓励警察制作老年人的照片，以突出晚年生活的美好一面。这些发现有助于地方当局之前对老年人在线代表的研究，通过展示第三年龄代表如何在实践中出现，以及哪些逻辑可能会影响官员产生这种表示。此外，所提供的知识可以用作评估和改进当局为老年人社交媒体照片制作的基础，这反过来又有助于在当局管理的社交媒体中对老年人和晚年生活进行更多样化和深思熟虑的表现。