During the past 50 years, the media channels, the media consumption patterns and the entire influence of media in society have changed dramatically. Looking into the future, the pace of change is not likely to decrease. In order to prepare for the future, it is important to increase our understanding of the present, in particular with regards to the environmental aspects of media consumption. I...

B in the market for news is well-documented. Recent research in economics explains the phenomenon by assuming that consumers want to read (watch) news that is consistent with their tastes or prior beliefs rather than the truth. The present paper builds on this idea but recognizes that (i) besides “biased” consumers, there are also “conscientious” consumers whose sole interest is in discovering ...

T he structure of a social network is fundamentally related to the interests of its members. People assort spontaneously based on the topics that are relevant to them, forming social groups that revolve around different subjects. Online social media are also favorable ecosystems for the formation of topical communities centered on matters that are not commonly taken up by the general public bec...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Fast-food companies have been reproached for rising obesity levels due to aggressive marketing tactics targeted at children. They have countered that parents should be held responsible considering their critical role as nutritional gatekeepers. This study examined the comparative effects of media exposure and parental mediation on Indonesian children's fast food consum...

In the course of the last decade, media consumption patterns among young people have changed markedly. A substantial proportion of teenagers and young adults in industrialised countries now have access to and make use of computers, the Internet, games consoles and mobile devices in addition to “old” media such as television and radio. The hypothesis in this paper is that out-of-school media use...