Content consumption patterns new media by the population of Belarus: theoretical and methodological aspect of the construction
Abstract
The article indicates the relevance of the study of media practices of the population with the exit to the formation of relatively stable models of media consumption in the conditions of the reflexive growth of the impact of such a player in the information field as new media. The characteristics of the features of the typologisation and classification of social subjects are given, possible approaches to typologisation and classification are reflected, as well as those contradictions that may arise during the implementation of the designated research procedures. A two-stage scenario for the implementation of the study of media consumption of the population of Belarus with the derivation of social portraits of consumers of traditional and new media finds its justification, the content of these constructs is reviewed. Using a practical example of an independent representative sociological research, the possibilities of factor and cluster analysis in empirical typology using software are demonstrated with a detailed description of the implementation of procedures and proposals for ways to resolve possible difficulties in the course of their application. The author presents and interprets the author’s five-component typology of media consumption models with an exit to the possibility of its application in wide practice with the available array of primary sociological information on the basis of calculating a number of additional indicators. The results obtained can find their application in the sociology of mass communication and the media and are addressed to specialists in the field of sociology of public opinion, theories of the information society, as well as the theory and methodology of sociology.
References
- Albig W. Public opinion and propaganda. Sturgis: Sturgis Press; 2007. 496 p.
- Lim J. Cross-lagged analysis of agenda setting among online news media. Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly. 2006;83(2):298–312. DOI: 10.1177/107769900608300205.
- Luhmann N. Die Realität der Massenmedien. Wiesbaden: GWV Fachverlage GmbH; 2004. 220 S. Russian edition: Luhmann N. Real’nost’ massmedia. Antonovskii AYu, translator. Moscow: Praksis; 2005. 256 p. (Obraz obshchestva).
- McLuhan M. Understanding media: the extensions of man. New York: McGraw-Hill; 1964. 359 р. Russian edition: McLuhan M. Ponimanie media: vneshnie rasshireniya cheloveka. Nikolaev V, translator. 3rd edition. Moscow: Kuchkovo pole; 2011. 464 р.
- McQuail D. Mass communication theory: an introduction. London: Sage; 1994. 564 p.
- Lippmann W. Public opinion. New York: Free Press; 1997. 272 p. Russian edition: Lippmann W. Obshchestvennoe mnenie. Barchunova TV, translator; Levinson KA, Petrenko KV, editors. Moscow: Institut fonda «Obshchestvennoe mnenie»; 2004. 384 p.
- Zaller J. The myth about massive effect of media revived? New support of discredited idea. In: Mutz DC, Sniderman PM, Brody RA, editors. Political persuasion and attitudes change. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; 1996. p. 17–78.
- Baudrillard J. Pour une critique di l’économie politique du signe. Paris: Gallimard; 1972. 280 p. Russian edition: Baudrillard J. K kritike politicheskoi ekonomii znaka. Krolechkin D, translator. Moscow: Biblion – Russkaya kniga; 2003. 272 p.
- McCombs ME. Setting the agenda. The mass media and public opinion. Cambridge: Polity; 2014. p. 1–21.
- McCombs ME, Shaw DL. The agenda-setting function of mass media. Public opinion quarterly. 1972;36(2):176–187.
- Bourdieu P. Sur la television: Suivi de L’emprise du journalism. Paris: Liber-Raisons d’agir; 1996. 95 p. Russian edition: Bourdieu P. O televidenii i zhurnalistike. Anisimova T, Markova Yu, translators; Shmatko N, editor. Moscow: Fond nauchnykh issledovanii «Pragmatika kul’tury»; 2002. 160 p. Co-published by the Institut eksperimental’noi sotsiologii.
- Long NE. The local community as an ecology of games. American Journal of Sociology. 1958;64(3):251–261. DOI: 10.1086/222468.
- Stins O, Van Fukht D. New media. Vestnik Volgogradskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Seriya 8. Literaturovedenie. Zhurnalistika. 2008;7:98–106. Russian.
- McCombs ME, Shaw DL, Weaver DH. New directions in agenda-setting theory and research. Mass Communication and Society. 2014;17(6):781–802. DOI: 10.1080/15205436.2014.964871.
- Yadov VA. Sotsiologicheskoe issledovanie: metodologiya, programma, metody [Sociological research: methodology, program, methods]. Samara: Samara University; 1995. 328 p. Russian.
- Bartholomew DJ, Steele F. The Analysis and Interpretation of Multivariate Data for Social Scientists [Internet; cited 20 July 2021]. Available from: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/The-Analysis-and-Interpretation-of-Multivariate-for-Bartholomew-Moustaki/e5cfb20df1a1abb9b425fb85a4529855017714db.
- Costello AB, Osborne J. Best practices in exploratory factor analysis: four recommendations for getting the most from your analysis. Practical Assessment, Research, and Evaluation. 2005;10:7. DOI: 10.7275/jyj1-4868.
- Flora DB, Curran PJ. An empirical evaluation of alternative methods of estimation for confirmatory factor analysis with ordinal data. Psychological Methods. 2004;9(4):466–491. DOI: 10.1037/1082-989X.9.4.466.
- Abdi H. RV coefficient and congruence coefficient. In: Salkind NJ, editor. Encyclopedia of Measurement and Statistics. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications; 2007. p. 849–885.
- Vermunt JK, Magidson J. Factor analysis with categorical indicators: a comparison between traditional and latent class approaches. In: van der Ark LA, Croon MA, Sijtsma K. New developments in categorial data analysis for the social and behavioral sciences. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers; 2005. p. 41–62 (Quantitative methodology series).
- Haddad S, Kordon F, Pautet L, Petrucci L. Models and analysis in distributed systems. London: Wiley-ISTE; 2011. 368 p.
Copyright (c) 2021 Journal of the Belarusian State University. Sociology

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
The authors who are published in this journal agree to the following:
- The authors retain copyright on the work and provide the journal with the right of first publication of the work on condition of license Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial. 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).
- The authors retain the right to enter into certain contractual agreements relating to the non-exclusive distribution of the published version of the work (e.g. post it on the institutional repository, publication in the book), with the reference to its original publication in this journal.
- The authors have the right to post their work on the Internet (e.g. on the institutional store or personal website) prior to and during the review process, conducted by the journal, as this may lead to a productive discussion and a large number of references to this work. (See The Effect of Open Access.)