Catalan adolescents’ media uses and leisure preferences related to new media and television

This article presents the main findings of a Media Uses Study (MUS), carried out in Catalonia in the context of a wider study of adolescents’ reception of television fiction programmes. Its main aim was to provide a general picture of Catalan adolescents’ media uses and leisure preferences. Method included a survey of 239 adolescents aged 15 to 18, and three focus groups. Adolescents’ media usage was characterized through the following elements: the weight of media-related activities within their leisure diet, the media equipment available, and the uses attributed by teenagers to the mobile phone, the Internet and television. Among the main results, the importance of the peer group in relation to both leisure and media activities must be emphasized. Moreover, adolescents’ media usage can be described according to a double dynamics, with new media being used as tools for socializing and communication, and television especially for shared viewing with the family.