Media Use

Platformization is fundamentally changing the media landscape and media consumption. Audiences have to deal with an increasing complexity and hybridity in media systems and content. This chapter discusses the challenges the current media shifts pose for usage research. First, the fundamental supply-side transformation processes associated with the platformization of news and entertainment media are outlined. Then, the chapter focusses on media usage research in general, differentiated according to the three phases of the communication process. Theories and methods from communication studies are explained and linked with selection-oriented approaches from media economics. Subsequently, the analytical framework is applied to describe news usage in high-choice media environments and methodological implications are derived.