Dimensions of Taste for Cultural Consumption– An Exemplar ... - SIFO

proven to be a difficult task to overcome. The motivation here is to concentrate more in defining thepattern, which has also according to López Sintas and García Alvarez (2004, 465–466) been almostnon-existent task in previous research.In this article the field of cultural consumption pattern is attempted to be characterized among thetarget group of young adults residing in the EU. Here we try to look whether the objects of culturalconsumption form internally coherent dimensions. Several propositions for operationalization of thetaste patterns are provided. The essence and “place” of each item are tried to fit into the compositionof broader consumption orientations; forms of taste are thus addressed. Thus, research question and itssub-questions can be posed as follows:1) Can we find dimensions of cultural consumption objects?1a) What characterizes distinct cultural consumption items?1b) Do items form dimensions of internal logic which clearly differs from others?Here an attempt on presenting one tentative pattern is made. The purpose is to enlighten a potentialway to construct cultural consumption taste pattern. The focus is on describing the method how tastepattern can be approached, and thus suitable fractions of data are used. This is why the whole of targetgroup is not studied and thus the aim is not give a holistic and detailed picture of all young Europeansin the data. The emphasis on this paper is thus not in the discussion over results but rather in thestrengths and weaknesses that the present operationalization possesses. The contribution of this paperis hoped to prove useful when applying the constructed pattern in the future studies. As a result anexemplar of potential model for pattern to be applied in future research will be presented.Cultural consumption is studied in form of cultural activities and artistic involvement, i.e. culturalhobbies. In addition, media preferences, i.e. taste for TV programs, radio programs and types ofinternet use are included as potential contents of the overall patterns. Leisure reading and listening tomusic is also included; the former is considered in the amount of books read per year and the latterincludes both the type of music preferred and participated (a specific activity of concert-going).SampleA Eurobarometer data (Eurobarometer 56.0; Christensen 2001) on information and communicationtechnologies, financial services, and cultural activities in respect of cultural consumption is used in theattempt on operationalization, and the sub-group of young adults, aged 20–35. The data set covers the15 member countries of the collection year 2001 and 4747 young consumers are included in total.The consumers and their patterns can be reflected upon their socioeconomic characteristics such aseducation, occupational status (class), income, gender, marital status and age, but here any of thebackground variables are not referred other than in the description of data presented in the appendixtable A1.Consumption items. Cultural consumption patterns can be measured with several kinds of variables.The first set of variables (“activities”) asks the respondents “Did you go to any of the following culturalactivities within the past twelve months?” Also the number of times the consumer has gone to theseactivities per year is measured and applied. The second set measures for respondents’ general tendencyfor cultural hobbies (“hobbies”). There are also variables referred as “supportive cultural consumptionitems” of which TV documentaries (watched) and leisure reading (yes/no in general) are referred in thispaper. Both music type (genre) preferences and actualized tastes are studied. Music taste actualized ismeasured with musical concerts participated within last 12 months. Cultural consumption can also bestudied in form of media preferences, i.e. taste for TV programs, radio programs and types of internetuse, but since the scope of this paper is illustrative, these items are omitted in the example.6