Convergence in Domestic Media Use? The Interplay of Old and New Media at Home

Television Studies, We Need to Talk about “Binge-Viewing”

“…Indeed, Katrin Muller and Jutta Roser’s (2017) research suggests that this could be so. They were investigating the thesis that convergent media would displace “classic” or traditional media in the German households they studied.…”

“…They not only studied television, but also included radio and newspapers as part of what they called “the media repertoires” of the households involved. Muller and Roser’s (2017, 61) “ethnographically-oriented” study which used interviews, written “profiles” from their subjects, and “home site inspections” as sources of information, found that the media repertoires of their subjects “had not been transformed radically” over their research period (between 2011 and 2013). (And, it is true that much may have changed since the research was conducted.)…”

“…. instead, old and new media were coexisting in the common household” (Muller and Roser 2017, 62). They did, however, identify three different patterns of domestic media use: those primarily focused on classic media, those primarily focused on diverse media (integrating the Internet with other media), and those primarily focused on online media.…”

“…Importantly, while finding that new media were “added on” to existing media practice—a finding supported by a long history in media studies—they also found strong evidence that media use was closely articulated to the demands and practices of everyday life within the household. That is, “new media are only integrated if their use fits within the routines of the common household” (Muller and Roser 2017, 69). For Muller and Roser’s (2017, 69) purposes in this study, the results supported the proposition that convergence, rather than a primarily technological process, is a process “driven by the users.”…”

“…Typical are those questions asking respondents what they choose to watch, with whom, where, and why (Evans 2011). Next, are questions about audiences’ choices of device, seeking in particular information about to what extent respective devices might be used in distinctive or demarcated ways—are they allocated specific purposes within the domestic media ecology, for instance (Muller and Roser 2017)? An increasingly important set of questions aims to complement or in some cases to challenge industry-sourced information; this relates to the manner in which respondents make use of different platforms or systems of delivery where their “connected viewing” ranges across free-to-air broadcast, cable, time-shifted, streaming, DVD or boxsets, or to Internet-distributed television more broadly (Holt and Sanson 2014).…”