EU cultural policy and audience perspectives: how cultural value orientations are related to media usage and country context

This article studies how people across Europe think about cultural value, including cultural heritage, and how this is related to their media usage. Drawing on data from the Eurobarometer in October 2017, which were designed with EU cultural policy goals in mind, we examine which cultural value orientations are most prevalent among citizens in European Union countries, and how these are related to their use of legacy news media and online media, their trust in professional journalists and social networks, and the media system their country belongs to. Our findings show three distinct types of cultural value orientation among Europeans: valuing cultural heritage, valuing cultural exchange, and skepticism towards European culture. These orientations map onto two out of three pillars of EU policy goals. While individual media usage and trust are important predictors of these orientations, we find limited effects of media systems, including market shares of public broadcasters.