Studying the Effect of Social Networks on Traditional Media Usage

The present article studies the relationship between the extent to which social networks are used and the consumption of print media, television, cinema, blogging, web browsing and e-mailing. Through a link, the research questionnaire was attached to the “Payamrasan” users’ web pages and around 180 individuals filled in the questionnaire. The responses show that social networks users make use of other media proportionately and in their view, social networks have failed to reduce the audience of these media. Findings indicated that social network consumption has decreased television viewers; however, it has not been able to affect print media, cinema, blogging, e-mailing and web browsing audience. The result of this study do not confirm replacement theory regarding the relationship between social networks with other media and it seems as media convergence theory suggests, it’s better to search the impact of new media in the type of their interaction with each other and the users’ culture in consuming these media, other than the impact of the extent of consumption.