Bowling Alone, Watching Together? Structural Explanations of Social TV Viewing From 1990 to 2010

• In Event: Social Influence on Media Use and Effects (TOP PAPER ENTRY)

Abstract

Today’s television viewing environment makes watching more easily a solitary endeavor leading to more individualized viewing behavior. Changes of social viewing, however, have hardly been studied and explained. Integrating individual and structural influences on audience behavior, we investigate how viewer and household characteristics affect social viewing. We use individual-level people meter data from Dutch TV viewers over a period of 20 years. Results of multi-level models show that social viewing can be explained by factors such as age, viewing habits and household composition. However, there is no indication that more general trends towards individualized TV viewing have taken place.

Authors

• Luzia Helfer, Leiden University

• Anke Wonneberger, U of Amsterdam