Media Habits of Immigrants: TV Viewing Habits of Immigrants in Rotterdam Student name: Sabina Gitman Students number: 452610 e-mail address:
[email protected] Supervisor: Dr. Jeremiah Spence Second reader: Dr. Ju-Sung (Jay) Lee Date of deadline: 26 June Word count: 27 191 Media & Business Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication Erasmus University Rotterdam Master’s Thesis June 2017 1 Media Habits of Immigrants: TV Viewing Habits of Immigrants in Rotterdam ABSTRACT Rotterdam is one of the most multicultural cities of the Netherlands. People from 175 nationalities live in this city (City of Rotterdam, 2016). Immigrants form a substantial part of the population in Rotterdam (CBS, 2017). Within the media field, immigrants are a large consumer group (Bink, 2002; CBS, 2017; Butter and Önce, 2010). However, the media needs of immigrants can vary significantly: Because of their diverse cultural backgrounds what immigrants expect from media can differ from the expectations of local people (Anjum & Michele, 2014; Bakoy, 2006; Bink, 2002; Butter and Önce, 2010; Sun & Sinclair, 2014). Therefore, to provide appropriate media content, it is important to understand the media consumption of immigrants more deeply. Additionally, studies on media habits can help form an understanding of the dynamics of acculturation and assist with the integration process into society (Walker, 1999; Reichenberg, 2016). This thesis aims to investigate the media consumption of immigrants living in Rotterdam, to be precise, their TV viewing habits. The research question set for this study is as follows: What are the media consumption habits of immigrants in Rotterdam while watching television via cable, IP-TV, satellite and the Internet? Moreover, there are two main directions for this research.