Digital Mediascapes, Institutional Frameworks, and Audience Practices Across Europe

This article explores the relationship between the media-use patterns of European audiences and the institutional contexts of digital media systems in a multilevel, crossnational comparative research design. A theoretical model is proposed for describing contemporary digital media systems, applied through cluster analysis to a set of 22 European countries. Four digital mediascapes/media system clusters are identified. Regression analysis shows the influence of macro-level media systems on micro-level audience preferences for different media. The media system clusters are related to data on media use from the nine countries in the “audiences across media” study. The findings strongly support the explanatory power of structural aspects at the macroinstitutional level for audience choices in terms of both legacy and Internet-based media.