New article by Marina Ghersetti and Oscar Westlund, both of University of Gothenburg, studies how how different generations’ media habits interrelate with media use during societal crises. The study is based on Swedish survey data from 2012.

The media habits of the elderly generation primarily comprise legacy news media, while the younger generation mainly uses digital media. The generations between the young and the elderly balance between legacy and digital. The results indicate that, when a crisis occurs each generation seeks information via the media it uses on a regular basis.

Habitual media use in everyday life strongly affects envisioned media use in crisis situations, the writers conclude.

The article “Habits and Generational Media Use” was published by Journalism Studies. It can be found here.

Picture: Generations by Gauthier DELECROIX, licence: CC BY 2.0