Digital media and digital media systems

To date, only a handful of studies have empirically investigated media systems in the digital age, often focusing on new citizens’ online media use as a central dimension for comparison. Stemming from traditional approaches to the study of media systems, in this chapter we review the latest efforts to measure digital media systems. In particular, we account for how the emergence of information and communication technologies shape such systems and how recent studies operationalize the relevant dimensions to compare them. We furthermore point at future research avenues for comparative digital media research. In particular, we posit that there is a need for new and refined indicators mirroring the latest transnational and national efforts to regulate social media platforms as distributors of news and political information, as well as for more comprehensive country samples beyond ‘the West’ and longitudinal analyses able to capture over-time trends in the production, distribution of, and access to online news.