Changing Trends in Media Consumption Patterns among College-Going Female Students in the Digital Era

Abstract

In the contemporary digital era, rapid technological advancement and media convergence have significantly transformed the ways audiences access, consume, and interact with media content. The emergence of smart phones, OTT platforms, and social media applications has reshaped traditional patterns of media consumption and introduced new forms of communication and audience engagement. Contemporary audiences, particularly young people, are increasingly moving from traditional media platforms toward personalized, mobile-centric, and on-demand media environments. As a result, media consumption practices have become more interactive, participatory, and individualized in nature.

This study has explored the popularity of new consumption modes and communication modes among college going female students. Through field work, personal narratives and experiences of participants have been recorded to access their consumption pattern. The aim of the study was to explore the changing consumption pattern of media and to find out user’s experiences as new pattern followers. The study has tried to understand acceptability of new consumption pattern and how the surroundings have been changed by technological and convergence emergence.  The study seeks to understand everyday lives of college going female students aged between 18-22. The present study was based on qualitative approach with exploratory research design. Purposive sampling was applied while selecting the participants from the Alipurduar district of North Bengal and North 24 Parganas of South Bengal of West Bengal, India. The study has been significant as it highlights the relationship among media, technology, and society, particularly in the context of changing audience behaviour, digital media dependency, and evolving patterns of content consumption in contemporary culture.