Media use and participation as a spectator in public leisure activities: competition or symbiosis?
Commercial entertainment activities in urban areas have proliferated at the same time that new technologies have increased the mass media menu from which people may select. While witnessing these two trends, mass communication scholars have employed theory that portrays media behaviours as both facilitators and competitors for opportunities to fill people's free time. First, research into media effects shows that media are most effective in conveying information. Thus, since the media provide copious amounts of information about public leisure options, we would expect such instrumental uses of the media to be positively related to participation in such public activities, largely as spectators, since those aware of the options are more likely to participate - other factors being equal. However, media also represent leisure options, so that time spent viewing TV, for example, competes with attendance at sporting events or the theater. Earlier research shows that media take about half of people's free time, while sports and various leisure pursuits take about 8%, our social life 18% and walking, resting and attending 'spectacles' the rest. This article reviews leisure theory and considers several explanations for the relationship between participating as a spectator in public leisure behaviours and mass media use. Then it reports on two surveys tapping public participation in a wide range of public leisure options and media use. Results show that the level of media use is positively related to the level of leisure activity even when social categories are controlled, suggesting that media are strongly integrated into the modern entertainment system and that fears media would 'colonize' leisure time may be unfounded