Change of residence, change of media and information usage? The relation between residential mobility, spatial identification and media and information repertoire

ABSTRACT

Increasing globalization and mediatization have changed individuals’ life and their information and media usage. People spend their life at several places and live in an increasing residential mobility. Possible consequences of mobile living are that individuals identify with different spatial spaces and use media and information differently related to individuals’ subjective importance of space and places. Since there is a lack of research about the relation between residential mobility, spatial identification and users’ media and information usage, this study tries to shed a light on this relationship in the context of Germany. Results from an online-survey reveal that mobile living influences users’ media and information repertoire. Furthermore, regional identity and cosmopolitism as forms of spatial identification play an important role for individuals’ media and information usage in the context of residential mobility.

KEYWORDS:

• Regional identity
• cosmopolitism
• media consumption
• interpersonal communication
• residential mobility
• online survey

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The factor analysis was conducted with regards to assumptions and results of Petzold (2013a), who tested different indicators for measuring cosmopolitism. Results of the factor analysis of our study are shown in Table 4.

2. All indices of spatial identification reflect strong identification in high values.

3. We included for all media the offline and explicitly also the online access.

4. In Germany these are papers which are distributed free of charge non-daily at regular intervals to households in a defined area.