Future Audiences: Toward Comparative and Longitudinal Research on International Media Audiences

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

Abstract

One of the core challenges of current research on media use in digital media environments is to understand the scale and scope of ongoing changes as well as their wider societal and cultural implications. Building on the empirical, methodological, and organizational lessons of the 2013 EU COST Action study of European audiences, this final paper presents three considerations for future research. First, because some countries are ‘pioneers’ of internet diffusion, while others ‘lag behind,’ comparisons within and between countries also begin to suggest structural changes over time, to be addressed in further inquiry. Second, to identify such longitudinal changes, the EU study yielded a number of indicators, both at the country level and at the individual level, which may guide comparative designs in future research. Third, comparative audience studies are themselves a cross-cultural endeavor: in conclusion, the paper reflects on how to organize and fund sustainable cross-cultural research networks.

Authors

• Uwe Hasebrink, Hans Bredow Institute for Media Research

• Klaus Bruhn Jensen, U of Copenhagen

• Hilde Dy Van den Bulck, U of Antwerp

• Sascha Hoelig, Hans-Bredow-Institut

• Pieter Maeseele, U of Antwerp