Gibt es einen transmedialen Nutzungsstil?

The article deals with the question of whether there are individual patterns of media use that can be observed not only across different situations but also across media types.We do not deal with the question in which quantity individuals use different media types; we rather focus on the media-specific style of usage they exhibit. As example, we assume that persons who usually choose television programs spontaneously also prefer spontaneous and heuristic selection styles when using other media types. Starting with an overview of previous theories, an explanation of the concept of ?trans-media use patterns‘ (TMUP), and some earlier empirical evidence, the paper develops a catalogue of different dimensions of TMUP and suggests media-specific operationalizations for television, daily newspapers, magazines, and web sites. This catalogue was submitted to n = 382 persons as a part of a questionnaire in summer 2004 (representative quota sample). The results confirm the concept: Almost all dimensions of TMUP correlate across the four media types; most of them significantly. Furthermore, the study shows how close the different media types are to each other in terms of usage and handling when looked at from the users’ perspective. A final outlook discusses the relevance of the concept and sketches future steps for theoretical and empirical research.