“Old media” and “New Media”: Audience Transformations in Changing Societies

• In Event: Comparatively Speaking: The Challenge of Comparative Research on Media Audiences in a Global Media Environment

Abstract

This paper confronts the common perception that “old” broadcast media (radio and television) and print media (newspapers, magazines, and books) are being displaced or substituted by new digital equivalents. Key findings from the cross-national study of European audiences point to the fact that the time allocated to the use of old media remains an important constituent of both media supply and audience demand. The analyses of European audiences identify a complex configuration of consumption patterns for old as well as new media, rather than any immediate or complete displacement process, at least at the present stage. The further implication is a slow evolution of and synergy among different media, through which sophisticated audiences, aware of their idiosyncratic psychosocial needs, know how to use various media simultaneously in order to fulfill such needs in the best possible way.

Authors

• Hanna Adoni, Hebrew U - Mt. Scopus

• Manuel José Damásio, U Lusófona

• Sara Henriques, Lusofona U

• Galit Nimrod, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

• Hillel Nossek, College of Management Academic Studies