This study explores the use of WhatsApp instant messenger in extended families in two countries, Finland and Italy, that represent different family and communication cultures. Qualitative research material was collected in 2014/2015 from families consisting of three or more generations and living either in the same or different households. A directed approach to qualitative content analysis was applied in the analysis of the research data. The results of the study show that WhatsApp is considered to facilitate family interaction across generations. The success of WhatsApp in the family context accounts for two main factors: first, for the possibility to reach the whole family at once; and secondly, for its capacity to promote "phatic communion" via small messages. While utilizing various communicative modalities of WhatsApp (text and voice messages, photos, videos), family members take into account others' preferences and communication skills.

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Traditional newspaper journalism is in a state of crisis and there have been several attempts to overcome this. Many discourses have reiterated the triumphal march of a digital revolution in newspaper journalism and anticipated the end of the print newspaper. This moment calls for an indepth analysis of reader habits of news consumption and use in order to understand the audiences for journalistic output and their relationship with the journalistic objects. In this study, we adopt a multi-method approach, integrating 1) qualitative content analysis of student essays dealing with the physicality of printed and online newspapers; 2) ethnographic observation of the use practices of readers; 3) expert interview. The findings show that informants perceive print and online newspapers as objects with which they have a different experience and highlight the need to develop bridging strategies combining print and digital media in order to overcome the crisis facing printed news media.

The aim of this article is to explore the motivations that drove many ordinary people to produce citizen journalism after the earthquake that destroyed the Italian city of L’Aquila in 2009. Using in-depth interviews, we investigate the motivations and the obstacles underlying the publication of grassroots information related to the post-earthquake situation. Findings highlight that people were largely motivated to upload their content online: (1) to contrast the quake-related news provided by Italian mainstream media with their own perceptions; (2) to document their lives and the ‘real situation’ of the city; and (3) to share their points of view with other citizens trying to re-establish online the ties broken offline because of the catastrophe. Analysis shows that these non-professional journalists also had to face a series of obstacles, such as risks of fragmentation and lack of professionalism, funding and visibility.