Media consumer behavior in the digital age

Abstract

The emergence of the Internet and mobile devices has revolutionized the way information is consumed and transformed the media business model as a result. As it is difficult to find a profitable model for the media, it is undeniable that what is really essential is to carry on trying to find an answer to the following question: Are human beings no longer interested in what is happening all around them? Or perhaps what has changed is the way that information is consumed and not so much the level of interest in it? A survey carried out among 1,500 individuals, grouped together by generations (millennials, generation X, baby-boomers and the silent generation), provides an emphatic response to this question: information does interest them, especially local and social information, and must be characterized by being truthful, reliable, objective, topical and rigorous, rather than deep. However, citizens have become avid consumers of information and want to consume it quickly in a disposable manner, anytime, anywhere. Compulsive behavior has taken over the market for information and has done so with hardly any inter-generational differences. In short, it is the millennial style, which is multi-screen and multi-device, brief and visual, without any barriers of time or space or loyalty commitments that will define the business model for the media.