Strategies of Receptive Social Media Use: How Users Combine Elements of Styles, Arrangements, Attitudes, and Focus

Abstract

The theoretical framework of media use strategies analyzes media use as a strategic practice, focusing on styles of acting, spatiotemporal arrangements, user attitudes, the focus of attention during reception, and the interplay between media practices and social structure. This approach is applied to receptive social media use by investigating the typical combinations of strategic elements and their overall structure. In an online survey, a quota sample of users of Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram in Germany characterized their most recent use of one of those platforms. Although individual strategies in specific situations were structured rather loosely—in terms of both the combination of strategy elements and their relation to social structure—certain patterns could still be identified.