Media repertoires and discursive communities: Studying audiences in the multimedia age

In: Communications: the European journal of communication research, Band 42, Heft 4

Abstract

AbstractDue to radical changes in media consumption, manifested in the widespread mediatization and proliferation of the uses of personal media in everyday life, research about media audiences can no longer focus on a single medium. In order to identify ideal-typical combinations of media platforms and aesthetic cultures in the population of the two largest Slovenian cities, the concept of media repertoires was used. The study shows that our respondents's media consumption is structured into four typical media repertoires: integrators, digital natives, television viewers and newspaper readers. These four repertoires also represent distinct socio-cultural formations. In social terms, (digital) audiences therefore do not constitute a homogenous social community, but should be understood as class-differentiated discursive cultures or 'meaning systems'.