Spaces Across Europe: Where People Use Media

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

Abstract

In contemporary societies, characterized by the pervasiveness of mobile devices and other media, space is key to understanding the everyday uses of media (Couldry & McCarthy, 2004; Meyrowitz, 1989). “Where people use media” holds important implications not only for the daily routines of media usage, but also for the meaning-making processes that media enable and sustain. On a theoretical level, this paper introduces two interrelated concepts of “domesticity” and “mobility” to account for the contemporary configuration of private and public spaces of media use. On an empirical level, the paper characterizes these configurations in the nine countries of the European study, identifying five different patterns of media use across social spaces, and relating these patterns to sociodemographic as well as cross-national factors. In conclusion, cross-national differences regarding the spaces of media use are elaborated with reference to the different macro-structural digital mediascapes in the nine countries.

Authors

• Piermarco Aroldi, Universita' Cattolica del Sacro Cuore

• Antonija Cuvalo, U of Zagreb

• Marina Micheli, U Milano Bicocca

• Francesca Pasquali, U degli Studi di Bergamo

• Zrinjka Perusko, U of Zagreb

• Nicoletta Vittadini, Catholic U of Milan

• Dina Vozab, U of Zagreb