Internet usage and cosmopolitanism in Europe: a multilevel analysis

Abstract

Despite the transnational interconnected nature of the internet, cross-national comparisons in internet usage and their effects are still relatively scarce. Moreover, one of the core intrinsic properties that internet theorists have distinguished, the ability to increase democracy and 'global understanding' through its connectivity, has hardly been empirically studied. This paper examines how internet usage affects individuals' openness to other cultures: cosmopolitanism. I analyze two manifestations of such openness: first, the cosmopolitan orientation toward other cultures in the broad sense; second, the interest in foreign cultural expressions. Using Eurobarometer data on 29 European countries, the results show that interactive internet practices are positively associated with openness to foreign culture. Buying culture online is positively related to interest in concrete expressions, but negatively to cosmopolitan orientation. Importantly, individual effects on cosmopolitan orientation are often moderated by the country people live in, whereas effects on interest in foreign expressions are more stable across Europe. ARTICLE HISTORY

Does consumer ethnocentrism impact international shopping? A theory of social class divide

“…The literature indicates that this can be achieved by increasing their cosmopolitan sentiments and social capital. Recent work suggests that one way to achieve this is by engaging these consumers with interactive online activities such as exposing them to diverse opinions on blogs and websites as well as involving them in interpersonal discussions (Verboord, 2017), activities that would appeal particularly to millennials. Alternatively, Kim and Kim (2017) suggest that social media use helps improve social capital for generation Z.…”

The end of pan-Arab media? National, transnational media and identity in Morocco, Tunisia and Jordan after 2011

“…Despite the enduring importance of the intersections between physical and digital spaces (Lovink, 2013;Morley, 2000), satellite television and the internet have surely contributed to reshape the relation between political communities, territories and identities. Within a broader global media environment, in fact, digital media do not only nourish pre-existing communities but they also contribute to the establishment of new 'de-territorialised' ones (Jansson, 1999) and therefore potentially encourage more 'cosmopolitan' attitudes (Chalaby, 2005;Norris and Inglehart, 2009;Verboord, 2017). This expansion of transnational communications has often been discussed in the case of the MENA region as a factor reinforcing a Muslim and/or Arab identity (Cherribi, 2006;Lynch, 2006).…”

Cross-National Differences in the Consumption of Non-National Culture in Europe

“…Recent examples include Germany (Mau et al, 2008), Australia (Woodward et al, 2008), the UK (Savage et al, 2010), the Netherlands (Meuleman et al, 2016; Meuleman and Savage, 2013), Denmark (Prieur and Savage, 2013), Switzerland (Rössel and Schroedter, 2015), Brazil (Hedegard, 2015), and a comparison between France and the United States (Maxwell and DeSoucey, 2016). Notable examples of cross-national comparative research into cultural cosmopolitanism include a study of the association between individual-level Internet use and country-level structural properties on the one hand and cultural openness on the other hand in EU countries using Eurobarometer data from 2007 (Verboord, 2017) and a study of global media consumption (Kuipers and De Kloet, 2009). Other studies that have a comparative dimension tend to study openness rather than actual consumption (e.g., Pichler, 2008).…”

“…Another manifestation of cross-border connectedness is one’s level of Internet usage. For example, looking at data from 2007 on 29 European countries, Verboord (2017) shows how individual-level Internet use and country-level structural properties are related to cultural openness.…”