The new media consumers: Media convergence and the displacement effect

This paper looks at the displacement potential of the new convergent technologies and whether PCs and the Internet have significantly reduced the consumption of 'old' media that require traditional literacy, defined as command of basic reading and writing skills, and media literacy connected to audio-visual media. It also explores whether these new technologies have led to less engagement in several hitherto popular leisure activities. These questions are examined in the Israeli multi-channel media environment that is now in the process of adopting digital technology. Data were collected through a telephone survey conducted in January 1997 involving a representative sample of 2,424 Israeli Jewish adults. The comparison between the non-owners and the owners of computers and the Internet shows that owners are higher consumers of books, other print media, cinema and other leisure activities than non-owners. In contrast, the percentage of "heavy" television viewers among owners was found to be lower. Regarding the conceptual model of interaction between the media, a high degree of functional equivalence between television and the Internet appears to be developing and consequently the potential for displacement of television as an autonomous technical device, or at least a high degree of functional interchangeability between them. Co-existence and/or interchangeability based on functional differentiation, seems indicated for print media and the new technologies, which require new convergent literacy and enhance functional multiplicity.