The (Italian) “Peoples’ Internet Project”: A Picture of Cross-Media Audience over Old and Digital Media

Abstract

In contemporary cross-media environments it is increasingly difficult to clearly grasp the behavior of media users, and understand the logic with which they move between legacy media, new media and social media, private and public communication, media consumption and content production. This article aims to provide the main evidences of how Italian Internet users draw on this set of media to meet their communication and daily needs. Built in the frame of the “Peoples’ Internet Project”, the study presents the main results of an online survey about frequency, intensity and purposes of different media uses. Even within the now majority segment of the Italian population that accesses and uses the Internet quite intensely, new media have not replaced the old ones; rather, the latter coexist with the former in new “media constellations”. While some of them (Tv and social media above all) are widespread and frequently used, the metamedium function performed by the Internet also allows the extension of some legacy media in the digital media arena, giving new life to old media.