Digital media revolution and stratificational inertia: A historical study of media usage and sociopolitical stratification in the age of social media

Abstract

Very few studies have deployed a historical focus in investigating how changes in the media environment in the twenty-first century have altered the connection between cross-media consumption, political (dis)interest, and dimensions of social stratification. This paper contributes to the literature on the nexus between democracy, citizens, and media through a historical study of media use among Danish citizens from 2008, which we argue should be considered the beginning of the social media era in the Danish context, to 2021, when social media was popularised among the wider Danish population. Based on three representative surveys on Danish adults’ media consumption in 2008, 2017, and 2021, we deployed multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) to investigate two related inquiries: first, a study of differentiation in cross-media consumption and, second, an examination of how such differentiation patterns are linked to social and political divides. This study contributes in two ways. First, it contributes to the methodological advancement of multiple correspondence analysis by addressing the challenge of conducting a cross-sectional design with changing variables and individuals. It accomplishes this discussing a recent approach centered on the formation of triads of variables. Second, it analytically shows that despite major changes in the media environment between 2008 and 2021, media use is consistently structured according to divisions, first in online and traditional media use and, second, between high levels of news consumption (as opposed to entertainment consumption) and news avoidance. These lines of division are consistently differentiated by age, social inequalities, and political orientation.