The Institute of Culture and Arts of the Latvian Academy of Culture (LAC) has published the research report “Digital Cultural Consumption Habits of Latvia’s Population”, which analyses how digital technologies affect cultural consumption in Latvia, how residents use digital cultural content, and how digital participation is related to in-person cultural experiences. The study is available on the LAC website: https://ej.uz/digitalaskulturaspaterinaparadumi
“Cultural consumption among Latvia’s population is currently most accurately characterised not by a shift from in-person experiences to the digital environment, but by the coexistence of both forms. Digital content expands access to culture, helps people find information, sustains interest and allows culture to be consumed more flexibly. At the same time, in-person cultural experiences retain their particular social and emotional significance. Therefore, digital cultural offerings should not be limited to digitisation; they should complement in-person experiences and be easy to find, understandable, technically convenient, accessible in terms of language and trustworthy,” researcher Līga Vinogradova comments on the study results.
The study results reveal that digital and in-person cultural experiences play different roles in residents’ habits. This is also reflected in data showing residents’ greater willingness to pay for in-person content, while digital cultural content is more often perceived as a free or lower-cost service. It was also concluded that residents engaged in digital cultural activities highly value the social and emotional significance of in-person culture; therefore, the use of digital culture in itself does not imply a desire to replace in-person experiences with digital options. Digital cultural content is viewed more as convenient, accessible and flexible, offering a wider choice. This is also confirmed by the forms of digital culture most frequently consumed by Latvia’s residents, such as listening to music and watching films, while products requiring more active engagement, such as digital resources created by local cultural institutions, are consumed less frequently.
The study revealed not only which digital cultural activities are undertaken by Latvia’s residents, but also, by using the diary method, made it possible to analyse their habits in depth. Different forms of engagement with digital culture were identified — from purposeful consumption of cultural content and digital socialisation to aimless content browsing and background consumption, which are characteristic of many people’s everyday lives in the digital environment. The study results indicate that residents assign different value to digital cultural content and that time spent in the digital environment does not in itself amount to high-quality cultural consumption.
The aim of the report is to provide an empirically grounded understanding of the place of digital cultural consumption in the everyday cultural habits of Latvia’s residents. The study is based both on data from a representative survey of Latvia’s residents (1,050 residents were surveyed) and on data from a diary study, which provides an in-depth understanding of the habits, types and patterns of digital cultural consumption, as well as its interaction with in-person culture. At the end of the report, recommendations have been developed for cultural policy makers, cultural organisations and researchers.
The study was carried out within the framework of the national research programme project “Latvia’s Cultural Ecosystem as a Resource for National Resilience and Sustainability” / CERS (No. VPP-MM-LKRVA-2023/1-0001). The project is funded by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia.
More about the project: https://www.lka.edu.lv/lv/petnieciba/petijumu-projekti/valsts-petijumu-programmas/cers/
