PROJECT INTERNET CATALONIA (PIC)
Communication as a Change Factor in the Information Society: Internet in Catalonia’s Audiovisual Context
This study aims to assess current patterns of transformation related to media in Catalonia within a context of swift ICT expansion and increasing technological and social complexity. It analyses the Internet and traditional media in terms of usage, function, and communication practices, considering the impact of current trends of digitisation and convergence on the processes of consumption, creation, production, edition and distribution of content.
Its main results emerge from the answers to an Internet-mediated survey of 708 individuals, who constituted a focus group of experienced and intensive Internet users in Catalonia. The survey was conducted between January and May 2006. Secondary sources were also used to ascertain the context of the survey, placing the Catalan milieu in the global framework as regards ICT expansion and the related changes in communication practices. The results were contrasted with Catalan media directors’ insights to complete the picture on the impact of ICT in the media sector in Catalonia.
The study works on the principle that the 20th century distinctive audiovisual sector is undergoing a critical process of transformation due to the incorporation of ICT into people’s everyday lives. It charts the ongoing change of the framework by focusing on social and individual practices regarding usage and consumption of technology and media, mostly the Internet and television, and their relation to time management and the different levels of input in communication processes. As a result, it identifies the household as one of the main stages where traditional and novel communication practices coexist and gradually adjust: in a context where agendas are highly structured and television takes most of the leisure time, the multiplication of devices and, above all, screens, and the increasing and related demand of active participation in technology-linked communication processes, challenge traditional daily schedules and habits.
The study pinpoints transformation trends in this regard and identifies the young as conducive to these changes, due to their special appropriation of ICT as multimodal means within their social and family contexts.
Research director
Imma Tubella, professor at the UOC
Research team
Carlos Tabernero, researcher at the IN3
Vincent Dwyer, researcher at the IN3
In collaboration with:
Carles Fernández, PhD candidate on the PhD programme at the UOC
Toni Roig, lecturer at the UOC
With the support of:
In collaboration with:
Consell Audiovisual de Catalunya (Audiovisual Council of Catalonia)
Televisió de Catalunya (Television of Catalonia)
Research started in:
March, 2005
Research report completed in:
March, 2007
Published in:
October, 2007