IDENTITY-RELATED MEDIA CONSUMPTION: BRIDGING THE LITERATURES FROM AUDIENCE RESEARCH, CONSUMER RESEARCH AND MATERIAL CULTURE STUDIES

Although identity has been omnipresent in the typologies of media use defined by various theoretical frameworks within the field of media studies since 1940s until recent years, and simultaneously a consumer research staple for over twenty-five years, the lack of collaboration between audience research and interpretive consumer research discouraged a complex view of media consumption practice. To resolve that problem, we propose an integrative review of identity-related media consumption by building bridges between these two areas of knowledge - audience research and consumer research. The paper additionally employs a material culture perspective to highlight the role of materiality in specific forms of media. To illustrate the usefulness of this literature integration, we focus on the role of media in the identity projects of audience members and we further discuss other potential interpretive relationships between media consumers and media products