Media Use Among Social Networking Site Users in Latvia

This article explores the relationship between social networking site use and mass media consumption. Based on data from an online survey, the study examines the consumption of print media, radio, television, online news sites, and social media by Latvian users of three social networking sites. According to the findings, most of the surveyed social networking site users regularly consume other media, although they are more likely to consume online news media than print or broadcast media. However, those users who spend the most time on social networking sites do not exhibit much interest in other types of media. Thus, the main distinction among the surveyed individuals is not between online and traditional media use but rather between the use of social media and traditional/journalism-based media. These results are relevant to the discussions of the potential of social media to attract audiences for the mass media.