Uses and media consumption by Portuguese university students: an exploratory study

In the age of convergence and ubiquity of the media, media consumption tends to be increased in a cross-media perspective. The media consumption begins to be in a multichannel perspective of communication (Amaral, 2016). Digital media is embedded in everyday life, which is transforming audiences' practices (Nielsen, 2014). The patterns of media consumption are increasingly cross-media (Schrøder, 2015). The generation of “digital natives” (Prensky, 2001) lives a hybrid reality in which consumption has become a collective process (Jenkins, 2006) and the use of technology is increasingly performed in an individualized way (Livingstone et al., 2007) and the media contents presented to the image of the receivers (Couldry & Markham, 2006). In effect, “the digital sphere provides a menu of information on demand” (Brites, 2010, p.170). In the context of uses and media consumption and digital consumption, studies show that younger generations have particular behaviours. In Portugal, the age group from 16 to 24 years old, whose socialisation process was marked by strong network sociability (Castells, 1996; Boyd, 2015), has a frequency of Internet use of 99% (INE, 2016). According to OberCom data (2015), in Portugal, the digital mediation practices of media consumption are present in this generation. A study by the Communications Entity of Portugal (2016) indicates that 98.5% of 15-24 year-olds are regular viewers of television. However mobile devices come second in access to media content. In the context of this hybrid reality, in which the ubiquity of the media is a constant, this article analyses the media consumption profiles of Portuguese university students using the concept of "media repertoires" by Hasebrink and Popp (2006). The authors' proposal is the aggregation of individuals through their media usage patterns that combine access to different media and content. This exploratory study classifies media consumption habits of Portuguese university students with the purpose of define preference profiles, identify practices, analyse the relationship with the media and patterns of use of technology to access information. The primary objective of this study is to understand the modes of media appropriation and media consumption to define "media repertoires" (Hasebrink & Popp, 2006). The specific objectives are as follows: i). classify information consumptions; ii). describe media preferences; iii). assess forms of access to information; iv). gauge the type of content consumed in different media; v). identify if there are media consumptions in cross-media; vi). analyse the information consumption practices in social media. The methodological approach to empirical research is operationalised through a quantitative strategy using the questionnaire survey. The sample is of convenience (n = 100), not being statistically representative of the population. Data processing uses descriptive statistical analysis to identify global trends and media consumption profiles.