The influence of expanding media menus on audience content selection

When Smith [The Wired Nation. Cable TV: The Electronic Communications Highway. Harper & Row, New York, 1972] described the ‘‘wired nation’’ some three decades ago, he saw an abundance of content and services that eventually would provide audiences with an almost unlimited menu of options. Almost three decades later, that vision has expanded beyond cable television to include satellite and cable systems offering 150 channels or more and an Internet whose ‘‘menu’’ is constantly expanding and literally indeterminate. This study examines people’s diverse interests and Internet use, media use, and interpersonal communication patterns. A survey of a major metropolitan area tapped people’s interests across 19 categories ranging from business and music to the environment, cooking, entertainers and other cultures. Also measured were access to communication technologies, Internet use, web diversity, media and interpersonal communication patterns and social categories. Results supported the hypothesis that diversity of interests would be positively associated with diversity of website use. Relationships also were found between diversity of interests and patterns of media use, and specific interest dimensions were linked to frequency of particular media behaviors. 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.