Young Italians’ Cross-media Cultures

Authors

  • Giovanna Mascheroni Osservatorio sulla Comunicazione, Italia
  • Francesca Pasquali
  • Barbara Scifo Universitá Cattolica del Sacro Cuore
  • Anna Sfardini
  • Matteo Stefanelli
  • Nicoletta Vittadini

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15847/obsOBS212008137

Keywords:

media culture, crossmedia, youth

Abstract

The article discusses the findings of a qualitative study aimed at investigating the development of new cross-media diets and new practices of media consumption and production among Italian young people (aged 14-24). These practices are certainly enabled by the diffusion of broadband, mobile media, digital television and the media convergence processes at the institutional and production level. They are also influenced by social and cultural factors such as age, gender, household composition, the extension of one’s social networks, and so on. The study has followed a multi-sited approach, with the adoption of different techniques of investigation (in depth interviews; participant observation with the support of visual sociology; an exploration of Italian online discussion areas). The article discusses some specificities of this young generation of Italians in the development of cross-platform consumption diets. In particular, it focuses on screen-based media consumption and technologically-mediated interpersonal communication. The findings on Italian youth’s media cultures provide the chance to reflect upon some relevant issues of the contemporary debate about media convergence: especially, the relation between private and public contexts of consumption, between mobile and domestic media, social broadcasting media and networking social media, and linear and non-linear patterns of reception.

Author Biographies

Giovanna Mascheroni, Osservatorio sulla Comunicazione, Italia

Lecturer at the University of Bergamo and senior researcher at the Osservatorio sulla Comunicazione. Her research interests are focussed on social networks, virtual and physical mobility, the Internet and mobile media. She has published two books: Breve Dizionario dei nuovi media (with F. Pasquali, Carocci, Roma 2006) and Le comunità viaggianti. Socialità reticolare e mobile dei viaggiatori indipendenti (Franco Angeli, Milano 2007). Among her international publications are Mascheroni, G. (2007), ‘Global nomads’ network and mobile sociality. Exploring new media uses on the move’, Information, Communication & Society 10(4), pp. 527-546.

Francesca Pasquali

Assistant Professor of Sociology at University of Bergamo where she teaches New Media Studies, and Senior Researcher at the Osservatorio sulla Comunicazione, a media research centre based at the Università Cattolica of Milano. Since 2000 she has been Salzburg Seminar’s Fellow. Among her interests are the social shaping of technology and the cultural production in ICTs. She has published five books and many essays in both national and international journals and chapters in co-authored books. She is among the editors of the Italian translation (2007) of the updated edition of The handbook of new media (edited by Sonia Livingstone and Leah Lievrouw). With Nicoletta Vittadini and Barbara Scifo she is currently writing a book, based on a large fieldwork with qualitative methodology, on new forms of digital media consumption and participation.

Barbara Scifo, Universitá Cattolica del Sacro Cuore

Assistant Professor of Sociology of Cultural and Communicative Process at the Università Cattolica of Milan, where she teaches “Languages and Instruments of Communication”. She is Senior Researcher at the Osservatorio sulla Comunicazione, where she also works as Scientific Coordinator. She is interested in the social shaping of ICTs, with a particular focus on social uses of mobile telephony, the internet and digital television. She has published many essays in both national and international journals and chapters in collective books. She has also published two books: Consumare la rete (co-edited with Francesca Pasquali, Milan: Vita e Pensiero, 2004) researching Internet consumption in Italy; Culture mobile. Ricerche sull’adozione giovanile della telefonia cellulare (Milan: Vita e Pensiero, 2005), a book on the mobile phone use by youth. Her international publications include ‘The Domestication of Camera-Phone and MMS Communication. The Early Experiences of Young Italians’, in K. Nyìri (ed.), A sense of Place. The global and the Local in Mobile Communication (Vienna: Passagen Verlag, 2005). She is currently working on the new forms of digital media consumption by young people.

Anna Sfardini

Assistant Research at the Department of Social and Political Studies, University of Milan. She is Senior Researcher at the Osservatorio sulla Comunicazione. Her research interests are focused on the media convergence processes and new practices of media consumption. She has published many essays in journals and chapters in collective books. She has also published (co-edit with Massimo Scaglioni, Roma; Carocci, 2008) MultiTV. The television experience in the age of convergence.

Matteo Stefanelli

Lecturer at Università Cattolica of Milan and senior analyst at the Osservatorio sulla Comunicazione. His interests cover the social shaping of visual pop cultures, particularly focusing on crossmedia audiences, visual storytelling, and comics culture. He has also worked on fiction TV, outdoor communication and mobile telephony. He published Fumetto International. Trasformazioni culturali del fumetto contemporaneo(ed.), Drago, Roma 2006, and Spazi sensibili. Pubblicità, comunicazione e ambiente urbano (co-edited with Piermarco Aroldi and Francesca Pasquali, "Comunicazioni Sociali", Vita e Pensiero 2006). His international publications include: "La moda italiana fra media e new media" (with Fausto Colombo), in Fashion and Culture in Contemporary Italy (edited by Junji Tsuchiya), Gakubunsha 2005; "La BD, nouvelle matrice des séries télévisées" (with Eric Maigret), in Médiamorphoses: les séries télé (edited by Eric Maigret and Guillaume Soulez), Armand Colin / INA 2007.

Nicoletta Vittadini

Assistant Professor of Sociology of Cultural and Communicative Process at the Università Cattolica of Milan, where she teaches the Sociology of communication and New media theory. She is Senior Researcher at the OssCom (Research Center of Media and Communication) and she is Vice Director of Almed (Post Graduate School in Media, Communication and Performing arts). Her research interests are media digitalization; digital media consumption with a particular focus on digital television and on cultural identity. She has published articles in national and international journals, chapters in books, and published and edited the following books: I nuovi strumenti del comunicare (with G. Bettetini, S.Garassini and B. Gasparini, Bompiani 2001) on digital media history, theory and applications; Dialoghi in rete ( Vita e Pensiero 2002) on Computer Mediated Communication, Reti di computer reti di culture: filoni di studio sulla presenza online dei migranti (published in Comunicare le identità Angeli, 2006) on digital media use by migrants in Italy and Digitizing TV. Theoretical issues and comparative studies across Europe (co-edited with Fausto Colombo Vita e Pensiero 2006).

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Published

2008-03-03

How to Cite

Mascheroni, G., Pasquali, F., Scifo, B., Sfardini, A., Stefanelli, M., & Vittadini, N. (2008). Young Italians’ Cross-media Cultures. Observatorio (OBS*), 2(1). https://doi.org/10.15847/obsOBS212008137

Issue

Vol. 2 No. 1 (2008)

Section

Articles

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