Leveraging a Vintage Radio Interface to Explore Media Recommender Systems

Older adults often face significant barriers to engaging with and critically evaluating complex, AI-driven systems, leading to potential exclusion and marginalisation. This paper introduces a novel approach leveraging a nostalgic vintage radio platform as a familiar and accessible "bridge"to provoke and facilitate meaningful participatory design discussions about such a system. We present a multidisciplinary design project that utilises the tactile and accessible metaphor of an old-fashioned, table-top wood-cased radio to engage older adults in conversations about the ethical impact and accessibility of contemporary media systems. The platform is used as a discussion toolkit to explore the pros and cons of AI driven recommender systems for this demographic, including issues of personalisation, filter bubbles and data transparency. Our work demonstrates the efficacy of using a familiar, emotionally resonant, tangible interface to enable deeper engagement and critical reflection on the impact of AI generated media content. We detail the design and intended evaluation of this interactive radio to provide valuable insights and methodologies for Human Computer Interfaces (HCI) and media studies researchers aiming to design more inclusive and accessible interactive media systems and foster informed dialogue with older user populations.