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innovative methods to explore media consumption in the fragmented, hybrid media landscape, our analysis adopts a mixed-method approach based on
Q methodology, which integrates rather than merely juxtaposes qualitative and quantitative tools. The analysis shows how the individual news media
constellations of thirty-six individuals can be analytically generalized into six repertoires of news consumption in Denmark, tentatively labeled (1) Online
quality omnivores; (2) Hybrid public service lovers; (3) (Light) news snackers; (4) Mainstream networkers; (5) Intellectual/professional networkers’; (6) Print
addicts. These six relational universes of news consumption originate in the preferences of the repertoire “members”for a particular constellation of print,
broadcast, online, and social news media forms taken from the domains of private and public service news media providers. With an interest in how news
media serve as resources for citizenship in everyday life, the paper also explicitly addresses the nexus of news repertoires and forms of public connection
asking: Do those participants who represent a news repertoire also substantially share forms of engagement and deliberative practices, such as: Do they
share and discuss news on social media? How active are they across a number of cultural activities? Do they participate in popular movements/NGOs (en‑
vironment, climate, third world aid, etc.) and/or political parties? Do they engage in political discussions online or offline? This nexus is explored both by
analyzing the participants’ verbal accounts in the qualitative interviews, and through a short paper-based survey among the thirty-six participants about
which correlates the media repertoires with the participants’democratic engagement and participation in mediated democratic deliberation.
PN 011
The Most Engaging Media Titles and Practices in the Cross-Media-Saturated Environment
R. Tammi
1
1
Aalto University, Department of Media, Helsinki, Finland
As the media landscape has fragmented, with similar content provided on different platforms, it is increasingly valuable to study those practices and experi‑
ences that readers, users and viewers associate with the most engaging media titles. This research provides a user-centric perspective for mapping people’s
media selections – personal media landscapes –, and analyses their micro-level fragmentation (Webster & Ksiazek, 2012). Moreover, the study indicates
the most important titles and examines how their use intertwines with the everyday practices. The data was gathered using four qualitative methods:
online media diaries for recording all media use for two weeks; media landscape interviews (Tammi, 2016) for sorting media titles in order of importance;
and ethnographic visits at the participants’ homes. These methods were complemented with reading aloud interviews for studying reader engagement
with a specific magazine title. This paper focuses on the media use of four groups (n=45): 18–25 year-old young adults, 35–45 year-old male readers
of Tekniikan Maailma (special interest magazine of technology and vehicles), 45–55 year-old female readers of Kotiliesi (women’s general interest maga‑
zine), and 45–55 year-old readers of Suomen Kuvalehti (news magazine). Especially in the personal media landscapes of the 45–55 year-old participants
fragmentation emerged as a great number of media titles: some included over a hundred titles in their selections, and in these groups the average sizes
of the personal media landscapes were significantly bigger. In the young adults group fragmentation materialised as individualised media preferences;
among the top-21 lists they mentioned more titles that no one else in the group had mentioned. Media engagement was closely connected with everyday
practices. Media use was described as routine, but many participants associated ritual practices (e.g. multisensory) with the more engaging titles to differ‑
entiate these from the mundane media use. Furthermore, the participants adjusted their media use according to the schedules of their family members,
both to share media experiences with them and for solitary concentration on media. In all methodical phases the participants elaborated on their ways
and purposes of using titles across media. Especially the convenience of online practices affected the use of print and broadcast titles in providing relevant
content when needed. Paying attention to title-specific practices across media provides a fruitful innovative perspective for researching engagement and
media selections in the saturated media world. First, even though people come across dozens of media titles on a weekly basis, the engaging ones are allo‑
cated time and used concentratedly. Second, as life phases and interests change, also personal media landscapes reshape frequently, even if media routines
are strong. Finally, online media practices enable increasing encounters with new titles, whereupon supplementing the personal media landscape – or
replacing disengaging titles – is easy. References Tammi, R. (2016) Engaging with media in the fragmented media environment. Aalto University. Aalto
ARTS Books, Helsinki. Webster, J. G., & Ksiazek, T. B. (2012) The Dynamics of Audience Fragmentation: Public Attention in an Age of Digital Media. Journal
of Communication, 62(1), 39–56.
PN 012
Media Diets in an Age of Apps and Social Media: Dealing with a Third Layer of Repertoire Elements
D. Trilling
1
1
University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam School of Communication Research, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Studies of 'media repertoires' have investigated patterns of media use on different layers. First, and most generally, one can identify repertoires based on
media types: radio, newspaper, the internet, and so on (e.g., Hasebrink & Popp, 2006; Hasebrink & Dohmeyer, 2012; Schrøder, 2014). Others focus on a sec‑
ond, more specific layer: the layer of individual newspaper titles, websites, or television programs (e.g., Van Rees & Van Eijck, 2003; Trilling & Schoenbach,
2013, 2015) – i.e., combinations of specific outlets that intersect with types of the first layer. However, in their model of "curated flows", Thorson andWells
(2015) argue that new gateways to media content have emerged, like citizens sharing content on social media. And indeed, as recent data suggests, out
of 10 online news articles Dutch online news users read, only 4.2 are read by going to the web site directly, while 2.4 are read via an app, 0.4 via a news ag‑
gregator, 1.9 via a link on Facebook, 0.3 via a link onTwitter, 1.1 via a link somewhere else on internet, and 1.0 in another, unspecified way.Therefore, I argue
that future research on media repertoires needs to incorporate a third layer that intersects with the first and second layer of media repertoires: a layer that
could be referred to as platform layer or gateway layer. If a media repertoire includes such new platforms, the actual selection of content often is determined
by algorithms and social ties, which is why selective-exposure scholars have argued that this can lead to polarization and fragmentation (e.g., Sunstein,
2002, Pariser, 2011). Compared to an offline world, where the stability of user habits makes it very unlikely that someone buys a different newspaper each
day, links as gateways to news articles can actually broaden someone's repertoire, while at the same time, it becomes difficult to identify a stable repertoire
of second-layer outlets. In the extreme case where someone uses only Facebook as a gateway to news, the repertoire on the first and third layer seems to