Changing Media Preferences? Comparing the Perceived Importance of Television, Newspapers and the Internet in Finland, 1999-2009

As the Internet provides extensive sources of information and entertainment platforms, traditional forms of media have come under scrutiny ever since the early days of the information and communication technologies (ICTs). In the present article, we examine how media preferences in Finland have changed over the past ten years by focusing on the perceived importance of television, newspapers and the Internet. We use three sets of nationally representative survey data from 1999, 2004 and 2009, respectively, to establish a comparative view of the preferences during this time. Our findings indicate that even though the perceived importance of the Internet has increased during the past ten years, media preferences in general have not changed radically. In addition, we are able to witness clear variations between socio-demographic groups across all points in time. Some of these variations have weakened over time, but not all of them. Broader implications for a changing media landscape are discussed in relation to the results.