Volume 38, Issue 4

This study analyzes Portuguese seniors’ Internet activity and determine their reasons, benefits, and motivations for web use as well as the obstacles faced by non-users. Results were derived from a questionnaire completed by 189 seniors enrolled in universities for seniors. 68.1% defined themselves as Internet users. The seniors asked principally go online to check e-mail and gather information. They state that the Internet is useful, helps them to stay up-to-date, and to preserve (but not expand) relationships. Non-user status is not attributed to old age or health reasons. According to the technology acceptance model, ease of use and perception of utility were related to both Internet use and its intensity of use. Family influence also played a key role. Gender differences were not found in Internet use, intensity of use, or in use motivations.

Even in its early years, the Internet was recognized as a medium with great potential for lesbians, gay men, and bisexual individuals (LGBs), especially for LGB youths struggling with their sexual identity. Yet, Internet research related to coming out tends to focus on particular cases or Internet use before and during coming out. Consequently, as such research emphasizes the opportunities and positive aspects of the Internet for LGBs, it may lead to an overestimation of the importance of sexual identity in terms of LGB Internet use. Therefore, in this paper we explore the LGB-specific Internet use of a broad crosssection of the LGB community both before or during and after coming out. Our quantitative online survey and in-depth interviews show that LGBs use the Internet for LGB-oriented purposes less after coming out than before or during it. The results suggest that sexual identity becomes a less salient topic in terms of everyday Internet use after coming out.

This article reports on Flemish college students’ news orientations and their uses of traditional and new media for news within a public service media environment. We used five homogeneous focus groups that covered variation in news media use. The analysis of the focus groups revealed major differences in news behaviors and attitudes between participants who mainly depended on traditional media for news, and those who also went online for news. While a growing body of research reports on young people’s increasing use of online media for news, particularly among those that are most disengaged with traditional news media, our findings indicated that only the most eager news-users were motivated to gather information online. Additionally, we found that traditional media, in particular national quality papers and the Flemish public service newscast, were still the main reference points for public affairs information among our participants.

This study analyses television news coverage of female politicians in Flanders (Belgium). Women politicians receive less coverage than their male colleagues do. We investigate whether this gender bias can be explained by political differences between men and women or whether a real media bias exists. We examine ten possible explanations, which can be divided into two groups: characteristics of female politicians, such as their function, and of news features, such as the theme of the item. Overall, the lower level functions of female politicians largely determine their limited television news coverage. Nevertheless, female politicians still get less speaking time, even when controlling for all ten variables. Thus, in addition to political gender differences, a real gender bias exists in Flemish television news: Female politicians receive less news coverage compared to male politicians with a similar political status.

Three studies are presented to validate the Spanish version of Oliver and Raney’s (2008; 2011) eudaimonic and hedonic motivations scale. In Study 1, 132 university students watched a dramatic (sad) film, filling out the scales to evaluate motivations regarding cinema consumption and reception processes. Eudaimonic motivation was associated with deeper cognitive processes during the reception and stronger identification with the protagonist. Study 2 evaluated the test-retest reliability of the eudaimonic and hedonic motivations scale ( n = 44). In Study 3 ( n = 537), statistically significant age differences were observed in hedonic and eudaimonic motivations. Furthermore, convergent correlations were detected between hedonic and eudaimonic motivations and preferences of different film genres. These results allow us to conclude that the Spanish version of the hedonic and eudaimonic motivations scale presents adequate psychometric properties, thus being convergent with those obtained by Oliver and Raney.