Seeking for a sense of place: beyond the digital space

This paper will discuss the dynamic of audiences’ media engagement especially beyond and after using particular digital media including certain social media based on the project led by Hill (2013-6) . Through this project, we have examined audiences of different types of programmes and films from different countries. Hill (2015) argues that the sense of place is crucial for the Nordic Noir audiences though the Nordic Noir TV dramas are becoming a global format against the 80’s study by Meyrowitz (1986). Turkle (2011) describes how digital technology has the impact on our lives in the socialising process and developing our identities. Through the project, the older people look for actual physical space where they can meet people or experiences the real world after viewing a programme by using digital media. This suggests that studying digital literacy or media literacy (i.e. Koltay 2011) alone can be very limited especially to understand how audiences/users would use the information in their real world. The socio-economic backgrounds can be also important to be examined to have a variety of media experiences which might divide people who are rich and poor media engagement and participation. This was seen in the reality TV show Got to Dance amongst the children’s media participation too. Reflecting the dynamic of audiences’ media engagement after viewing through this project, a sense of place (seeking for a certain identity) will be focused