Media Consumption

Resumo: O artigo apresenta uma discussão teórica sobre os estudos de consumo, especial-mente o musical, entendido como conjunto de processos socioculturais pelo qual se realizam usos e apropriações de bens, produtos e experiências musicais, um modo para conhecimento do mundo. Segundo Canclini (1991; 1995), o consumo serve para " pensar ". A articulação entre seis racionalidades-cultural, dos desejos, dos aspectos simbólicos e estéticos, de interação sociopolítica, de integração social (CANCLINI, 1991) – seria um modo de refletir sobre as condições de consumo e cidadania. Nos anos 1990, o autor propunha pensar sobre o consumo como a construção de um sub-campo de estudos. O texto aborda teorias da Antropologia do consumo para entender a produção de sentido. Palavras-Chave: consumo musical; produção de sentido; juventude. Abstract: This article presents a theoretical discussion of the Consumption Studies, specially the musical ones, which are understood as the group of sociocultural processes in which products, goods and musical experiences are used and appropriated as a path for the world comprehension. For Canclini (1991; 1995), music is used to " think ". The articulation between six rationalities-cultural, of desires, symbolic and aesthetic aspects, sociopolitical interaction and social integration (CANCLINI, 1991) – it would be a way to reflect about conditions of consumption and citizenship. In the 1990s, the author proposed to think about consumption as the construction of a subfield of studies. The paper covers theories of Anthropology of consumption to understand the production of meaning.

Аннотация. В статье проанализировано медиапространство Грузии, прежде всего его тенденции с 2016 по 2020 г.: основные предпочтения и спрос аудитории на традиционные и новые медиа. Актуальность темы обусловлена тем, что Национальное агентство статистики Грузии до сих пор не проводило широких исследований в сфере медиа, отчеты и рейтинги составляются отдельными международными фондами, которые не рассматривают медиарынок в Грузии в целом, в связи с чем эти исследования носят несистемный характер. Таким образом, цель исследования-выявить основные изменения в области медиапотребления Грузии по следующим категориям: печать, телевидение, радио и новые медиа. Пандемия коронавируса ускорила цифровизацию грузинских медиа, усугубив кризис в сфере печати и сделав интернет-площадки более привлекательными для крупных холдингов и независимых авторов в условиях экономического спада на медиарынке и оптимизации. Для выявления данных были использованы методы контент-анализа, наблюдения и социологического опроса. Особое внимание в статье уделено тенденциям, возникшим на медиарынке Грузии с начала пандемии,-основным динамичным изменениям грузинского сегмента Facebook, развитию жанра карикатуры и предпочтениям пользователей социальных сетей. Исследование охватило целый ряд факторов, влияющих на медиапотребление Грузии: возраст потребителей информации, их географическое и социальное положение, национальный менталитет, а также уровень религиозности. Полученные результаты демонстрируют высокую степень медиатизации религии в Грузии, проявляющуюся в том, что церковь стала лидером мнений, определяющим точку зрения большинства относительно темы пандемии коронавируса. Согласно результатам проведенного опроса, население Грузии стало больше смотреть телевизор и чаще слушать радио. Повысился уровень интереса к социальным сетямв частности, к блогам-как на грузинском, так и на русском языке.

Media studies often are under expert judgment. This practice relegates media consumers to the background. This study evaluated qualitatively and quantitatively perceived credibility and authority from the online media consumers’ point of view in Colombia. It was found that online credibility is relatively low compared with traditional media, but reputation excels over its relationship with traditional media.
Unlike what has been reported, virtual consumers take into account certain criteria to evaluate digital media credibility, including author´s contribution to the news story, as well as his/her experience and expertise. It is possible that him/her, and not the media itself, is the main influencer or authority criteria for these digital consumers.

In the contemporary media ecosystem, online consumption is framed and characterized by a number of general elements. These key factors are: a) the overabundance of information available to users (information overload); b) the speed of online interaction; c) the emergence of attention as currency; d) the multiplicity of different screens; and e) the socialization of consumption. This chapter, grounded on a comprehensive literature review, first provides a description of these elements. A digital diet is then proposed based on the development of three areas: knowing how to use the technological tools and applications to deal with information overload; learning how to manage attention and cognitive overload; and, finally, establishing regular periods of digital disconnection. The conclusion is that practicing these healthy habits leads to more useful and effective media consumption.

This article explores the relationship between social networking site use and mass media consumption. Based on data from an online survey, the study examines the consumption of print media, radio, television, online news sites, and social media by Latvian users of three social networking sites. According to the findings, most of the surveyed social networking site users regularly consume other media, although they are more likely to consume online news media than print or broadcast media. However, those users who spend the most time on social networking sites do not exhibit much interest in other types of media. Thus, the main distinction among the surveyed individuals is not between online and traditional media use but rather between the use of social media and traditional/journalism-based media. These results are relevant to the discussions of the potential of social media to attract audiences for the mass media.

As media usage continues to increase on a global scale, fueled by the proliferation of mobile devices, this facilitates the effortless behavior of mediamultitasking. This paradigm shift in the way in which media is consumed presents fundamental challenges for the domains of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), education, psychology, and commerce. This technological shift introduces a new dimension that is needed when attempting to understand user interaction related to both the devices themselves andthe digital platforms accessed. This study begins a process of developing an understanding of cross-cultural media multitasking habits through a survey of a large group of experimental participants. In this study, participants from two different countries were surveyed. The countries used in this study were the USA and Portugal. This research provides valuable insights into theincreasingly common phenomenon of media multitasking and the similarities and differences between cultures when users are engaging in this activity. This study contributes to previous research in the realm of media multitasking by expanding on foundational knowledge on a global scale setting the stage for more detailed research on predictors, outcomes, and habits of global media multitasking.

Tendo por base a ideia de que ter acesso à internet não significa o acesso regular, procurou-se encontrar a percentagem de portugueses que acedem à rede pelo menos uma vez por semana. Em contraste com a narrativa vigente sobre a digitalização do país, verificou-se que 39,5 % dos inquiridos não acede à internet frequentemente, o que vem corroborar os estudos referentes a esta matéria que colocam Portugal na cauda da Europa. Por regiões, o Algarve regista a maior percentagem de acesso regular (72 %), seguindo-se a Grande Lisboa (67,9 %), o Alentejo (58,2 %) e o Norte (53,3 %) e, em termos etários, observa-se um grande fosso entre a regularidade de acesso dos mais jovens (96,3 %) e dos maiores de 65 anos (11,5 %). As principais atividades desenvolvidas são o envio/receção de e-mails (87 %), especialmente por homens, e o acesso a redes sociais digitais (79,9 %), maioritariamente por mulheres. O acesso a jornais e revistas online regista 53,6 %, seguindo-se a rádio (22,7 %) e a televisão (21,7 %). Esta hierarquização está em linha com os conteúdos disponíveis online por meio em Portugal, com a imprensa a recorrer à web como extensão do papel que permite um aprofundamento e uma mais célere atualização de informação. Efetivamente, a imprensa tem sido mais ativa do que os outros meios, em especial a televisão, cuja oferta online está muito centrada no streaming e na disponibilização de programas já transmitidos, numa duplicação das funcionalidades oferecidas pelas boxes. A utilização da internet, em contexto de mobilidade, faz-se maioritariamente através do smartphone e sobretudo pela faixa etária dos 15-24 anos. CONSUMO DE JORNAIS E REVISTAS Mais de dois terços dos portugueses acedem, com regularidade, a jornais e revistas, quer na versão impressa, quer na versão online (68,2 %), com as faixas etárias dos 25 aos 34 anos e dos 35 aos 44 anos a mostrarem-se as mais ativas, com um acesso médio de 78,5 %. A migração das publicações para o digital é uma realidade incontornável do panorama mediático nacional. Contudo, o estudo revela que os leitores regulares de conteúdos produzidos por jornais e revistas continuam a aceder sobretudo através do papel (94,8 %), seguindo-se o acesso via os sites oficiais das publicações (39,8 %), os portais agregadores (34,7 %) e as redes sociais digitais (34,3 %). CONSUMO DE RÁDIO O meio rádio é escutado, regularmente, por 73 % dos inquiridos, valor alinhado com a realidade francesa (75,5 %) e acima da realidade espanhola (60,1 %). A escuta é realizada em especial pela população ativa e por estudantes, com uma percentagem acima dos 80 %. Os homens mostram-se mais ligados à rádio do que as mulheres e o autorrádio continua a ser a forma de acesso mais popular (60,6 %), enquanto o computador é a forma de acesso menos utilizada (11,6 %). CONSUMO DE TELEVISÃO 99 % dos inquiridos vê televisão de forma regular, não se observando diferenças significativas em termos etários e de género. A escolha do televisor principal do lar fica a dever-se à dimensão do ecrã e à qualidade de imagem, sendo que perto de um quarto dos portugueses apenas tem acesso aos cinco canais em sinal aberto. Este facto fica a dever-se, em 65,9 % dos casos, a razões económicas. Dos 767 inquiridos que têm acesso a mais do que os cinco canais, apenas 6,9 % tem por hábito utilizar o Video-on-Demand, sendo a faixa etária mais jovem (15-24 anos) aquela que mais recorre a este serviço.

Los hábitos de consumo mediático generados por Internet es una de la razones esgrimidas para explicar
la crisis del consumo radiofónico de antena convencional entre los jóvenes (Martí, Gutiérrez, Ribes,
Monclús, Martínez, 2010). La UER ha recomendado a la radio pública medidas destinadas a mitigar el descenso de los índices de audiencia juvenil de antena convencional revitalizando su presencia en Internet (EBU, 2008). Esta comunicación presenta las primeras conclusiones de una investigación de l’Observatori de la Ràdio
a Catalunya (GRISS-UAB), titulada La Radio 2.0 y los Jóvenes. Oportunidades de la radio online como catalizador de la audiencia juvenil para la antena convencional. El objetivo del presente texto es establecer y analizar los parámetros que intervienen en el diseño de la oferta radiofónica, entendiendo
ésta como el escaparate de una marca que exhibe sus contenidos en la emisión hertziana y online. En las radios musicales, esta circunstancia es especialmente significativa dado que tradicionalmente han actuado de puente hacia la radio generalista. En esta comunicación, presentamos los resultados obtenidos en dos focus group, realizados a jóvenes
oyentes, diferenciados por su escucha preferente de antena convencional o de Internet, donde se constata la incidencia y la percepción en este segmento poblacional de las políticas aplicadas por las emisoras musicales más representativas del ecosistema catalán (40Principales, Europa FM, Flaix FM,
Màxima FM, Ràdio Flaixbac, RAC 105). El análisis de los contenidos de antena convencional, atendiendo a su formato y temática, y de los websites, especialmente en el acceso a contenidos en directo y a la carta, podcast y el uso de las redes sociales (FaceBook y Twitter) y de otros recursos online (Youtube y Spotify), conforman el eje vertebrador del guión de los grupos focales. Aunque la investigación está en curso, podemos avanzar que la radio musical debe reforzar su marca en general, tanto en la antena convencional como en Internet, para restablecer los vínculos afectivos perdidos con los jóvenes en un entorno mediático híper competitivo, evidenciando que las actuales sinergias entre ambos soportes son insuficientes para garantizar un tráfico fluido de oyentes.

The growing prevalence of foreign media consumption, including from Japan, has received considerable notice in recent work on PRC youth culture. To date, however, few studies have considered how youth of different social backgrounds perceive their consumption of Japanese popular culture in the context of the Party-state’s ‘patriotic education’ campaign waged in schools and in the mass media. Studies have also overlooked how rural and urban youth in China juxtapose the images and themes conveyed in the Japanese media that they consume with school and domestic media messages. Drawing on interviews with middle school students in Shanghai and Henan, the present study addresses these issues. It finds that while a majority of youths from different backgrounds express animosity toward Japan, they separate these feelings from their passion for Japanese popular culture. In some cases, consumption of Japanese media also allows teenagers to feel that they ‘know’—or even appreciate—the other country better. Amid the anti-Japanese messages currently circulating in PRC schools and domestic media, consumption of Japanese popular culture manifests a form of ‘expressive individualism’ among teenagers, who creatively construct their own notions of patriotism, national memory, and Sino–Japanese relations.

There are numerous empirical sociological researches of transmedia storytelling media consumption. However, they mainly record either the practices of media consumption of specific media formats included in the structure of a transmedia project or the producers’ ways for constructing a narrative that creates transitions between media platforms. Often, researchers pay little attention to the circumstances of users’ interaction with the fictional world and their social relationships that form around a transmedia project. This study consists of a series of in-depth interviews and observations on the media consumption practices of users and fans of the fictional world which has formed around a series of fantasy works under the general name The Witcher. This transmedia project is interesting because, unlike specially created transmedia franchises with the expansion structures carefully planned by media companies, it forms itself spontaneously, as a result of the activities of different institutions and user participation, does not have a single development strategy, and is shaped by “grass-root” practices. The observation of media consumption practices of transmedia storytelling allows us to conceptualize construction’s peculiarities, such as narrative structures. Based on this data, it is possible to construct a network of interactions formed by the user migration between media platforms and compare such practices with the audience’s everyday practices. Since modern people form their understanding of the world based on their own experience and by using mediatized communication, transmedia storytelling represents a special kind of virtual reality or its particular case, which can be supplemented with the help of VR-technologies.
Эмпирические социологические исследования, посвященные медиапотреблению трансмедийных произведений, проводились неоднократно, но они главным образом фиксируют практики взаимодействия с конкретными медиаформатами, входящими в структуру трансмедийного проекта. Зачастую мало внимания уделяется обстоятельствам взаимодействия пользователей с вымышленным миром и их социальным отношениям, формирующимся вокруг трансмедийного проекта. Данное исследование состоит из серии глубинных интервью и наблюдений за практиками медиапотребления пользователей и поклонников вымышленного мира, сформировавшегося вокруг цикла произведений в жанре фэнтези под общим названием «Сага о Ведьмаке». Данный трансмедийный проект интересен тем, что в отличие от специально созданных трансмедийных франшиз, где структура расширения заранее спланирована медиакомпанией, он расширяется стихийно, благодаря деятельности разных институций и пользовательского участия, не имеет единой стратегии развития и сформирован практиками пользователей. Наблюдение практик медиапотребления трансмедийных произведений позволяет выявить способы конструирования подобных нарративных структур в формах медиатизированной коммуникации. На основе этих данных становится возможным построить сеть взаимодействий, формирующуюся вследствие миграции пользователей между платформами, и сравнить подобные практики с повседневными практиками аудитории. Так как современный человек формирует представление об окружающем мире не только исходя из личного опыта, но также использует медиатизированные средства коммуникации, трансмедийный сторителлинг, таким образом, предстает особого рода виртуальной реальностью или частным ее случаем, который может быть дополнен с помощью VR-технологий.

Also available for review at https://tinyurl.com/StrangeVisitor.

We recognize myths for what they indicate about the values and beliefs of the cultures who were the authors and audiences of those myths; many of the earliest communicators of myth were telling stories about subjects they counted as people (somewhat) like themselves. Yet, despite our modern sophistication, today’s consumers of narrative still often treat fictions as though they are real, thinking and feeling people.  We are introduced to Superman, for instance, as a fiction, but circumstance often leads consumers to discursively treat that invented hero as a human subject.  Now, though, we verge on a technological future in which just such sympathies might become functionally useful. In our modern science fiction like Star Trek: The Next Generation and Westworld, we have already begun to imagine how we will come to treat our narrative inventions of tomorrow. Strange Visitor: Subjectivity, Simulation, and the Future of the First Superhero begins to ask what our actual responsibilities will become when fictions can be rendered with volition.  In its opening chapters, the text studies how we humanize a figure like Superman in our own perceptions, and how that treatment--along with his continuing narrative development--makes him a prime candidate for an experiment in complex, highly verisimilitudinous simulation.  Superman is a central point of consideration here simply because there is so much of him to consider. He may be the most content-dense fiction ever created, but the innumerable opportunities consumers have had to get to know the character mean that he is also eminently familiar.  Superman has maintained his presence in our media and discourses, across the decades, as consumer populations have continued to grow and our communications structures have commensurately evolved and expanded. Superman is the subject of this study not because he has become so popular, but because he has managed to stay that way at a particularly sharp inflection point in the history of human communications. 

But, the Man of Steel is often generalized as infallible and, therefore, rather dull.  The first part of this work--an expansive psychological assessment--troubles such a presumption, though, by examining the complex mind that has accrued within decades of narrative, across media, and which must be carefully navigated in any exhaustive analysis.  This first section also considers Superman’s relationship with his media consumers: from how we use him to form childhood bonds with one another, to how we respond to his continuing humanization.  For, Superman is powerfully determined by how audiences actually treat any given instance of the figure as Superman.  Today, we find that we can engage with particularly realistic media, encouraging us even more urgently to invest in the verisimilitude and humanity of the characters and places being presented, and doing so often makes a narrative more appealing.  Accordingly, Superman’s relationship with his own media is particularly convenient to an examination of the intersection between fictional narrative, high technology, and identity negotiation.  To understand Superman's potent humanization, the first half of this text presents an assessment of his identity from multiple essential perspectives, including those of his content creators and consumers, as well as the complex judgments of himself and his fictional society as they have been presented in his narratives. Diegetic evidence is considered in historical and psychological capacities in order to assess how Superman’s media has been constructed--practically from the beginning--to encourage consumers to invest themselves in the figure’s humanity and relatability.

In its second part, Strange Visitor moves from relevant questions of identity into a more practical application of those insights to current and emerging technologies.  We already enjoy vastly interactive ways of engaging with our fictions, and we can anticipate continuing advancements in the verisimilitude, interactability, and spontaneity of artificial intelligences.  Accordingly, fewer and fewer holes in the experiential tapestry of narrative will have to be ignored as both storytelling techniques and rendering technologies continue to evolve.  Soon, what we practically treat as a ‘human’ subject may have more to do with that figure’s specific engageability than with its biology or physical consistency.  Given the view of the detailed project proposal that constitutes the second part of this work, spontaneous, humanlike, autonomous simulations culled from fictional worlds could very well become reality within the foreseeable future.  Emerging from our science fiction dreams, several considerable, real-world technological initiatives would see us reconstruct the intellects of great thinkers, such as Gandhi, Curie, or Hawking. But, reconstructing and functionalizing the consciousness of a real person--living or dead--is an ethically dubious proposition from the start.  Instead of an original personality, though--seemingly ‘complete’ at first, but limited in contextual understanding--what if researchers built a simulated subject from the material of a robustly developed fiction?  If the first of our deep, humanlike engagements with such technology will be the most important, Superman seems a fitting choice, given how we have already embraced him on personal and cultural levels.

But, as real technologies advance toward that imagined outcome, we must also ask how the practical, livable terms of fictionality would change. How would our own responsibilities evolve as we produced and engaged with such personalities?  The prototypical solution I propose here--referred to as the Metropolis Simulation System--could be considered one of Andrew M. Butler’s necessary explorations into the role of the simulacrum (“Postmodernism and Science Fiction” 147).  Whatever of these speculations does or does not bear out, it is my hope with this text to show the reader that we must pay substantial attention to our future relationships with our media and computing technologies. Such a situation need not be feared, though, if we approach with the optimistic combination of thoughtfulness and adventurousness that a character like Superman can inspire.

Strange Visitor is intended for any who might have the interest and/or resources to help realize the rendering of a densely-developed fiction as an exemplary representative of humanlike, fully-engageable general artificial intelligence, including the developers of the many technologies referenced.  Portions of the work might also be used as an introduction into the complexities of mediated identity construction, while the critical questions presented could be utilized in advanced media studies courses, or as portions of a forward-thinking philosophy curriculum. Other segments may benefit discussions on popular fictions generally, the ethics of narrative, or psychological and identiary dynamics.

This film review of Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, released by Netflix in 2018, discusses the nature of the interactive genre, focusing on its current and future effects on data mining, product placement, and programmatic
advertising, highlighting the new, evolving role played by the viewer.

Resumen:
La cultura digital ha cambiado el consumo de los medios de comunicación, especialmente entre los jóvenes. La radio se ha adaptado tecnológicamente a la red pero no ha realizado el mismo esfuerzo en la transformación de sus contenidos, que siguen siendo los tradicionales, sin considerar las nuevas demandas de este sector del público. El artículo plantea los resultados de una investigación que, a través de la encuesta a casi 1.000 jóvenes, pretende conocer sus hábitos de escucha y la valoración que hacen del medio con el objetivo de marcar pautas que puedan servir de referencia para las políticas programáticas radiofónicas.

Laburpena:
Kultura digitalak hedabideen kontsumoa aldatu egin du, bereziki gazteen artean. Irratiaren teknologia interneten ezaugarrietara moldatu da, baina ez du egin esfortzu berbera bere edukiak eraldatzeko: horiek betikoak dira oraindik, entzule gazteen eskaera berriak kontuan hartu gabe. Artikulu honek ia 1.000 gazteen artean egindako inkesta baten bidez egin dugun ikerketaren emaitzak islatzen ditu. Bere helburuak honako hauek dira: gazteek irratia entzuteko orduan izaten dituzten ohiturak ezagutzea eta hedabide horri buruz egiten duten balorazioa jakitea, irratiko programazio politikak aukeratzeko baliagarriak izan daitezkeen irizpideak ezartzeko asmoz.

Abstract:
Digital culture has changed media consumption, particularly among young people. The Radio has adapted its technology to internet but has not made the same effort to transform their contents, that remain traditional, without considering new demands of young public sector.
This paper presents the results of an investigation consisting of a survey of nearly 1,000 young Spanish people, in order to learn about their listening habits and to know their opinion about this media. The objective is to set guidelines that can serve as a reference for radio programming policies.

The goal of this study is to identify gaming slang terms in the news articles of highly rated Russian media. Three online newspapers of various types were used as an empirical material: Kommersant (the first private business newspaper in Russia), RBC (a socio-political analytical newspaper) and Rossiyskaya Gazeta (agency of the Russian Federation government). With help of the content analysis of the media texts, all cases of using the slang gaming terms such as “achievement”, “noob”, “easter eggs” etc. have been discovered and described. The results of
the study show that over the past five years the popularity of the gaming terms usage in the media has been growing; this increase can be described as a linear progressive growth: gaming slang is becoming an integral part of the Runet online resources and is gradually entering common vocabulary. It can be assumed that with the increase in the number of media managers from the generation of digital natives and their transition to the category of “decision makers”, the growth of gaming slang terms in online media will become exponential.

Studies on youth media consumption and its effects on their being have always been the interest of many studies all over the globe. It is because of youth's importance in the society and the roles they will play in the future, most specifically the educated ones. However, in the Philippines, there is only little information about the out of school youth. This study aims to determine the media consumption of the out of school youth since they are one of the most deprived individuals on having sufficient knowledge about media and its effects on individuals. Among other types of media, television has the highest percentage of consumption among the Filipino out of school youth more than the Internet and radio. Using statistical methods, we relate the relationship of consuming a specific media to their subjective wellbeing. Findings revealed that not all media affects the out of school youth's feelings of being contented, joyful, and relaxed, only specific media types affects such feelings. Overall, the study shows that the out of school youth and their consumption of media are indeed related with each other.

Digital marketing is a very promising advertising tool in the developed nations where internet penetration is almost as deep as up to 80% of the population size. However, in developing economies and especially in case of India, the use of digital marketing as an effective tool for advertising needs to be examined in detail. The dynamics of the Indian market are quite

While most of the literature highlights the social, economic and cultural aspects of Filipino migration, this study explores its political dimension by focusing on the public connection of Filipino elite migrants in London. Unlike other types of Filipino migrants, such as Americanized balikbayans and ‘low-skilled’ labour migrants, elite migrants are expected to return physically to the homeland as part of their nationalistic duty to ‘lead the nation’. From their interviews and participant observation, the authors discover that overseas scholars indeed maintain a strong interest in homeland political issues through heavy news consumption on the Internet. However, this has also fostered an ambiguous kind of public connection. On the one hand, elite migrants remain engaged with issues that they hope to address on their eventual return, but on the other hand they are not immersed with ‘other’ Filipino people in the diaspora. Their political engagement involves talk and mediated conversations with limited face-to-face collaborations with other migrants. This kind of public connection lends itself to long- distance particularistic communication and a great volume of discussion, but limited and short-term forms of public activity. The authors argue that elite migrants’ practices of political engagement are inscribed in continuing socio-historical – and fundamentally classed – divides in Philippine society. Further, rather than enabling cross-class communications and connections, the media are frequently used by elite migrants to maintain political, economic, social and cultural divides.

The irresistible march of transnational media has given rise to widely experienced problems concerning cultural autonomy and identity. The research tradition of `cultural studies' offers a very appropriate and distinctive way of analysing these questions, especially by means of a critical ethnography of reception. The tendency in some recent reception research to celebrate `the popular' as a source of resistance to `the hegemonic' is criticized.

Technological transformation has provided conditions for people to engage in different stages of news production, as never before. With this in mind, this paper explores whether the media and journalists across Europe in their attempt to innovate the news business model reconsider their relations to users. More specifically, we question whether this innovation seeks to address users primarily as citizens or as consumers. The analysis is based on the data collected by national research teams through the project Media Pluralism Monitor 2016, implemented in EU:28, Montenegro and Turkey. The results show that the most visible attempts of innovation are crowdfunding/crowdsourcing and paywalls, which can be seen as a turn to audiences to compensate for a loss in advertising revenues. At the same time, only a few initiatives re-invent their relationship with audiences by giving them more decision-making powers (be it related to content or to their business strategy). Audiences are to a great extent still treated simply as paying consumers, and the level of participation remains limited.

This study explores the phenomenon of video game spectatorship from the perspective of a population I refer to as "just watchers." Previous studies have tended to focus on game spectatorship from turn-taking "non-players" or live-streaming audiences, specifically. "Just watchers" are individuals who express no desire to play video games themselves, yet are avid spectators of others' video game play, both virtually and in-person. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 27 participants, this study explores their motivations for gaming spectatorship, as well as their aversion to playing games themselves. Findings suggest the "work" of playing games, lack of skill, access to games, and toxic online communities are deterrents to playing games. Participants expressed that games spectatorship offers them narrative engagement that is distinct from traditional media, and that despite "just watching," they tend to consider themselves as part of gaming culture.

This paper presents the results of a research study exploring consumer behaviour and uses of photography among first-year students of the Degrees in Journalism, Audiovisual Communication, and Advertising and Public Relations in four Spanish universities (University of Malaga, University of Santiago de Compostela, University of the Basque Country and Universitat Jaume I in Castellón). As it is well known, the emergence of digital technologies has caused far-reaching transformations in the field of photography. These changes have affected production, distribution and circulation processes. However, digital technology has particularly changed the concept of photography itself as a means of expression and communication, above all among young people. Changes in how photography is perceived nowadays, brought about by the onset of digitalization, in turn raises a series of questions that merit reflection. To
this end, a survey was designed and administered to a total of 467 communication sciences students in Spain. The results of this research reveal, on the one hand, how these communication students relate to the use of photography today; on the other hand, and more importantly, the results throw some light on how to approach the teaching of digital photography in a higher education context.

Se presenta una investigación sobre los hábitos de consumo y usos de la fotografía entre estudiantes de primer curso de las licenciaturas en periodismo, comunicación audiovisual y publicidad y relaciones públicas, en cuatro universidades españolas (Universidad de Málaga, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Universidad del País Vasco y Universitat Jaume I de Castellón). Como es sabido, la aparición de las tecnologías digitales en el campo de la fotografía ha provocado profundas transformaciones en el panorama fotográfico. Estos cambios han afectado a los procesos de producción, a los modos de distribución y circulación de las imágenes. Pero, sobre todo, ha tenido notables consecuencias en la forma misma de conceptualizar la fotografía como forma de expresión y comunicación, y en los usos de la fotografía, en especial entre los más jóvenes. La digitalización ha contribuido a transformar, asimismo, la propia percepción del medio fotográfico, que merece una reflexión en estos momentos. A tal fin, se ha diseñado una encuesta que ha sido realizada a un total de 467 estudiantes de ciencias de la comunicación de nuestro país. En definitiva, el análisis de las respuestas que ofrece la presente investigación nos ha permitido, por un lado, tomar conciencia sobre cómo se relacionan estos estudiantes de comunicación con el medio fotográfico en la actualidad. Pero, sobre todo, se trata de una investigación que nos ofrece algunas pistas sobre cómo abordar, en plena era digital, la enseñanza de la fotografía en el contexto educativo universitario.

This essay aims to delve into the reflections upon the media consumption developed by Baudrillard in one of the central paragraphs of The Consumer Society (1970), focused on Marshall McLuhan's theory of media. The purpose is to dwell on those factors that, according to Baudrillard, determined the functional transformation of the mainstream medium into a denotative medium, founded on the construction and diffusion of particular signs and social meanings. In the aforementioned paragraph, titled " medium is message " , Baudrillard further investigates some insights developed by McLuhan in Understanding media (1964). He extends his semiotic approach to the world of media (and in particular to television) and focuses on the new literacy of mainstream culture. His plan is to support the interpretation of social consumption as a communication process. In particular, Baudrillard dwells on two of McLuhan's insights, referred to the appearance of the media society. On the one hand, he analyzes the power that media have to alter " deep down and unconsciously " (Baudrillard, 1970, p. 123) the sensitive relationships and the perceptive models of the social actors. On the other he deals with the power of mass media to " neutralize the lived, unique, eventual character of the world and substitute for it a multiple universe of media which, as such, are homogeneous one with another, signifying each other reciprocally and referring back and forth to each other " (Baudrillard, 1970, p. 124). The replacement of experiences with objects and symbols expresses one of the trademarks of the consumer society that Baudrillard probes starting from the correspondence between the medium and the message pointed out by McLuhan. Baudrillard exploits the topic of the tribalization peculiar to homo tecnologicus, just to understand the symbolic distance between the old manuscript or typographic civilization and the new era of images, shaped by cinema and television. Baudrillard provides a stimulating interpretation of media as advice able to modify our perceptive faculties. This is one of the most interesting aspects of his analysis of the television consumption, destined to convey the ideology of omnipotence of a system and superimposable symbols. Hence, the interpretation of TV images (applicable to the contemporary digital world too), as a " metalanguage of an absent world " influencing the cultural, value and symbolic dimension, observed by means of the magnifying glass of McLuhan's telescope.

This paper aims to advance understanding of the role ethnic and multicultural media can play in connecting municipal governments and Ethnocultural and Immigrant Communities (EICs). Using an innovative mixed-methods approach and methodological triangulation, we compare the access to and use of multicultural media among four EICs—the Chinese, Latin American, Somali, and South Asian—in Ottawa, Canada. Our cross-comparative study yields three main findings: 1) members of participating communities proactively and strategically use a variety of sources to access information about local services; 2) noteworthy differences exist in the access to and use of different types of media both across and within the four EICs, due to demographic and cultural differences; and 3) participants shared challenges and opportunities that multicultural media afford to better connect municipal government and EICs. The paper's findings make important empirical contributions to the literature on the integrative potential of ethnic and multicultural media by strengthening the reliability of data, validity of findings, and broadening and deepening understanding the role multicultural media play in promoting collaboration between city governments and diverse EICs.

O artigo apresenta uma contribuição teórica sobre os estudos de consumo, especialmente o musical, entendido como o conjunto de processos socioculturais através do qual se realizam usos e apropriações de produtos musicais, um modo para conhecimento do mundo e produção de sentido por meio da música. Canclini defende a articulação seis racionalidades: cultural, dos desejos, dos aspectos simbólicos e estéticos, de interação sociopolítica, de integração social (CANCLINI, 1991; 1995). Para este autor, “pensar” seria a reflexão sobre as condições de consumo e cidadania, bem como a construção de um subcampo de estudos. O texto aborda as origens epistemológicas do
consumo para entender teoricamente seus aspectos.

The study provides an overview of the accessibility and use of media by youth, the importance of media to youth, the content they create, but also tackle challenges related to youth’s media literacy and use of hate speech. In the first research in Croatia, dealing with media literacy, more than 4000 youth, 39 youth NGO's representatives, 32 media representatives and seven media organizations, have participated in the online survey and semi-structured interviews. The study showed that youth are portrayed negatively in the media, that they are connected with topics regarding fashion, scandals and sports and that their level of media literacy is low. In the end of the research, the recommendations were given. The research in English language is available on http://bit.ly/YM_istrazivanje_en. The Croatian version can be found on http://bit.ly/YM_istrazivanje

The chapter Great Media Dinner Party – An Introduction to the Children's and Teenagers' Media Worlds focuses on the characteristics of young media consumers and their media worlds from the sociological point of view. It shows what media children and teenagers use; it analyses the ways of using media and follows the change of the young generation's media worlds in the last few decades.

This chapter examines the phenomenon of digital piracy as a form of consumption, challenging traditional views that equate piracy with theft and unauthorized downloading with lost sales. It argues that such simplifications overlook the complex dynamics of media circulation, use, and value creation in the contemporary media landscape. The author posits that digital piracy occurs in a context of high complexity, which is difficult to capture using traditional views of creative products.
The chapter explores the transformation of media products into public goods through digitalization, a process that separates immaterial objects from their physical support. This shift has led to changes in media consumption patterns, with consumers having more control over when and how they access media. The chapter critiques traditional copyright enforcement strategies, which often fail to consider the intricate ecosystem of media and the changing nature of media consumption.
Furthermore, the chapter delves into the impact of piracy on traditional media distribution models, suggesting that piracy accelerates existing trends toward consumer-controlled media consumption. It also discusses the role of new technologies and digital rights management in shaping media consumption, arguing that piracy may be viewed not as a subversive act but as an integral and potentially beneficial part of the evolving media consumption landscape.
In summary, the chapter calls for a reevaluation of the concept of piracy, proposing that it be seen as a complex and integral part of the digital media ecosystem, challenging traditional models of media consumption and value creation.