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Session Submission Summary

Socializing the News, Connecting to Public Issues? Exploring Audiences’ Media Practices in Four Countries

Sat, May 23, 12:00 to 13:15, Caribe Hilton, Auditorium

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

Past research suggests that audiences’ media habits contribute to establish different forms of connection with public issues. For instance, Couldry, Markham and Livingstone (2010: 3) conclude in the book “Media Consumption and Public Engagement” that individuals share an orientation to a public world “where matters of shared concern are, or at least should be, addressed” and that this “public connection” is also sustained through audiences’ media consumption patterns. Even though this finding was obtained before the emergency of social media, as well as the expansion of smart phone use, its relevance for media and journalism studies remains as a framework to understand the relation between citizens and democracy. Furthermore, the contribution of the project was methodological and it opened up a possibility for international assessments of the mediated nature of public connection in various cultural contexts. Based on diaries recording individuals’ perspectives on public issues, as well as their everyday habits of media consumption; in-depth interviews and surveys, this panel is based on different studies across varied countries using and developing the methodological approach. The panel explores, with a comparative approach, the way audiences get involved with public issues through different forms of media in Chile, Mexico, Finland and Denmark. Different media environments – sometimes saturated by devices, platforms, and information – offer a possibility to assess the theory on public connection and analyze current media-related practices that offer a possibility for public orientation in various contexts. As Couldry (2010: 37) suggests, a practice approach asks “what are people doing in relation to media” across varied contexts and situations. In this vein the panel discusses, to what extent news and information, as a result of audiences’ varied media practices, are resources for socialization? Through which media practices audiences establish a connection with public issues? This panel thus offers four different case studies based on quantitative and qualitative approaches to critically examine audiences’ relation with public issues through their media practices in different national contexts.

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