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Culture & Society

The internet in everyday life: a typology of internet users

Michael Meyen, Senta Pfaff-Rüdiger, Kathrin Dudenhöffer and Julia Huss
Media Culture Society 2010 32: 873
DOI: 10.1177/0163443710374792

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Commentary

The internet in everyday life: a typology of

internet users
Michael Meyen
UNIVERSITY OF MUNICH

Senta Pfaff-Rüdiger
UNIVERSITY OF MUNICH

Kathrin Dudenhöffer
UNIVERSITY OF MUNICH

Julia Huss
UNIVERSITY OF MUNICH

This study focuses on those factors that determine internet usage. How can differences
in use be explained, and what factors influence the relevance the various web appli-
cations have for the individual?
This article argues that the increasing diffusion of the internet has by no means
closed the digital divide within society (Roe, 2006): the differences have merely
shifted from disparity in internet access to disparity in the quality of its usage
(Hargittai and Hinnant, 2008). The concept of digital inequalities assumes that dif-
ferent patterns of internet use influence the life chances of a user: the more capital
he/she can accumulate using the internet, the more he/she benefits from web use
(Zillien and Hargittai, 2009). Until now, research on the digital divide has opera-
tionalized capital-enhancing activities using demographic variables (van Dijk, 2006).
As an alternative, we suggest using the habitus–capital theory of Bourdieu as a theo-
retical background to answer the question regarding which kinds of capital the inter-
net users gain online and which factors influence the patterns of usage. These patterns
are not only influenced by user age, but also by social position, gender and job status,
and can only be assessed in the context of everyday life (Roe, 2006).
The present study is based on in-depth interviews (basis: Germans aged 14 years
and older), because the practical sense that users assign to the internet is more readily
observable when their background, daily routines and media repertoire (and therefore
functional alternatives) are well known. The sample of 102 interviewees was selected

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874 Media, Culture & Society 32(5)

theoretically, and as a theoretical background we employed a uses and gratifications

approach (Rubin, 2002) and the sociology of Bourdieu (1984).

Theoretical background

Few studies have so far considered the status of the internet in individuals’ everyday
life or media repertoire, or how people combine the varied applications provided by
the internet. At first glance, this research gap might surprise, given the fundamental
supposition of uses and gratifications theory. According to this theory, various media
offers compete with other means of communication and can be functional equivalents
(Rubin, 2002: 528). Their utilization depends on both the needs of the user that derive
from their respective social and psychological situations, and on the demands and
structure of daily routines (Rubin, 2002). Without knowing the situation and every-
day routines of the user, it is difficult to identify those factors that encourage individ-
uals to use various applications.
To address the criticism that usage motives are arbitrary, lacking in theoretical
background, and that the results of uses-and-gratifications research depend on volun-
tary disclosure of confidential information, this article is also based on the habitus–
capital theory (Bourdieu, 1984). Bourdieu offers an explanation of why people act as
they do. The habitus, as a ‘system of predispositions, a matrix of schemes, judgements
and behaviours’ (Neveu, 2007: 339) is not innate but is constructed upon an individ-
ual’s life experiences. These experiences in turn depend primarily on social position
and lead to systems of permanent dispositions (Bourdieu, 1977). To describe and
analyse concrete actions (e.g. blogging or using social network sites), Bourdieu split
the habitus analytically into an opus operatum and a modus operandi. The modus
operandi (how and why people act) is defined by the opus operatum, by the personal
life story which is determined by disposition (age, gender and outward appearance),
socialization (origin, education and employment) and the current life situation (fam-
ily, children, capital equipment and activities beyond the job perimeter and future
prospects). Because we rarely think about these dispositions and forget about their
genesis, people develop a practical sense which functions like an instinct and allows
them to react to all of the possible uncertain situations and ambiguities encountered
in everyday life (Bourdieu, 1984).
The most important determinant for the habitus is the social position of the actor.
According to Bourdieu, the fight for status is literally a synonym for being human. He
assumes that every individual strives to be better than others – a process present at all
times and one that we are not necessarily conscious of. Bourdieu uses the term ‘cap-
ital’ to describe the extent to which development is possible. He differentiates four
types of capital: economic, cultural (abilities, skills and knowledge), social (net-
works) and symbolic (prestige and reputation).
To date, the concept of digital inequalities has operationalized capital enhancement
by different types of web pages (Hargittai and Hinnant, 2008). However, the same
website can be visited for different reasons and therefore contribute to different sorts
of capital enhancement. Thus we suggest examining different patterns of internet use
(and the different motives for internet use) and their contribution to capital enhance-
ment: as for cultural capital, the internet is a huge knowledge store. Internet users can
improve their skills and abilities online and can experience their competence. The
internet makes it easy to gain social capital by forming (new) weak ties as well as
maintaining strong ties (Ellison et al., 2007). Additionally, web users can improve their
economic capital, either by purchasing goods or by saving time doing things online.

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Meyen et al., The internet in everyday life 875

Method

If one agrees with these assumptions, there inevitably arise consequences for the con-
ceptualization of internet usage: use of online services cannot be explained in the
absence of habitus and social position. To understand the ‘practical sense’ that peo-
ple associate with internet use (habitus as modus operandi), it is necessary to know
how each individual has been socialized, to know about living conditions and dispo-
sitions (habitus as opus operatum), and to know how much capital is owned and accu-
mulated (social position). The habitus–capital approach requires a detailed insight
into the experiences of the respondents and largely necessitates a qualitative research
approach. There is a clear lack of such approaches in digital divide research, which
would be all the more necessary to describe the relevance of internet practices in
everyday life (van Dijk, 2006) and to differentiate between different forms of internet
use (Hargittai and Hinnant, 2008). In-depth interviews cannot deliver representative
results and cannot answer the question of how commonly a specific usage pattern is
represented in the population, but they can at least reveal and explain typical patterns.
Theoretical sampling was used to select the participants in order to enable general-
izations. The quota convenience sample of 102 internet users who used the internet at
home (not only for job-related purposes) was selected on criteria of habitus and social
position:

Gender: 54 women, 48 men

Age: 14 persons younger than 20, 43 persons between 20 and 29 years of age, 36
persons between 30 and 49 and 9 persons older than 50 years
Phase of life: 33 persons engaged in education (including 18 students), 20 persons
employed with children at home (including 3 single mothers), 8 persons employed
with grown-up children, 31 persons employed without children, 2 retirees and 8
unemployed
Partnership: 58 persons living with a partner, 44 single persons
Education: 30 persons with a university degree, 32 with A-levels (‘Abitur’), 17
with O-levels, 9 with CSE, 7 grammar school pupils (‘Gymnasium’), 3 pupils at
Intermediate Secondary School (‘Realschule’) and 4 pupils at General Secondary
School (‘Hauptschule’)
Place of residence: 79 in urban areas, 23 in rural areas.

The topics in the interview guidelines referred to the theoretical assumptions and con-
centrated on internet usage (patterns of use, motives, evaluation; habitus as modus
operandi), biography and life situation (habitus as opus operatum), as much as media
use (functional alternatives), as contextual factors for internet usage. The interviews
were carried out between June and November 2008. Most took place at the respon-
dent’s apartment and lasted about 60 minutes. Thirteen of the interviews were held
online via the chat service Skype. The other interviews were recorded on tape and
then transcribed.
For analysing the data, we follow a theory-driven approach which is different from
any classical grounded theory and different from hermeneutics. Our procedure could
best be described as a ‘theoretical coding’, using our theoretical concept (a combina-
tion of uses and gratifications theory and Bourdieu) to interpret the qualitative data
(Creswell, 2007). We developed a portrait of each actor by contextualizing the given
statements based on the biographical context of the interviewees. These portraits then
formed the basis for our typology. First, we needed to find dimensions that grasp the
similarities and differences between types:

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876 Media, Culture & Society 32(5)

Relevance of the internet to daily routine: The more often the interviewees used the
internet and the more they were emotionally involved in their usage, the more the
internet was personally relevant to them. Some of the respondents were ‘always
online’ and couldn’t imagine living without the internet. Others were online only
‘two times per week for several minutes’ and could happily make do without inter-
net access. Therefore, we first distinguished low, middle and high relevance.
Capital: All of the interviewees used the internet to gain economic capital by pur-
chasing online or saving time. At the same time, they were all highly appreciative
of the fact they could use the internet to look up anything they wanted to know at
any time. Economic capital and use of the internet as a gate to the world’s knowl-
edge were therefore not appropriate in distinguishing different forms of internet
use. In contrast, not all of the interviewees used the internet to improve their
knowledge or to solve actual problems, such as a manager (aged around 40) who
looked up information on spiders on Wikipedia for his daughter’s homework. As
with cultural capital, social capital can be acquired and arranged via the internet.
The interviewees varied with regard to whether they used the internet to maintain
their bonding ties (as with a 56-year-old mother who used Skype to stay in touch
with her son in Kathar), establish new ties (a 16-year-old grammar school student
showed pride at having accumulated 300 friends on a social network site) or did
not use the internet at all to stay in touch. Therefore, the interviewees can be
clearly distinguished between those who prefer to achieve social capital online and
those who prefer to achieve cultural capital.

In a second step, we used the concept of attributed space (Lazarsfeld and Barton, 1951)
to gain an overview of all the potential combinations of our dimensions and started sort-
ing the portraits of the internet users. With each new portrait, we decided whether he/she
was similar to any of the others sorted previously or whether he/she represented a com-
pletely new case in our attributed space. After sorting, we had to accept that there was in
fact a seventh type of internet user, who not only used the internet more often than the
others, but also combined social and cultural capital (see Table 1).Then we looked for
demographic and other lifestyle characteristics shared by the different types to identify
influencing factors for certain behaviour. The following sections describe the character-
istics of each type, and discuss the factors that influence internet use.

A typology of internet users

This typology presents seven types of internet users who vary markedly according to
the relevance they attribute to the internet and the sort of capital they accumulate
through internet usage.

TABLE 1
Typology of internet users
Relevance/capital Cultural capital Social capital
Very high The Virtuosi
High The Professionals The Addicts
Middle The Aficionados The Companions
Low The Cautious The Affiliated

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Meyen et al., The internet in everyday life 877

The Virtuosi

The Virtuosi can no longer imagine a life without the internet: it is vital to their
daily routine. ‘I’m always online’, said an electronic engineer (aged 27). They
check for email ‘several times a day’ (student, late 20s), closely follow the latest
news (‘Altogether I subscribe to about 40 RSS-Feeds’, doctoral student in his late
20s) and continuously monitor the financial market (‘Financial news in the inter-
net is my hobby’, student, late 20s). At other times, they play online games (‘I
have played World of Warcraft for about two and a half years’, student, aged 26)
and visit newsgroups, blogs and bulletin boards (‘My favourite topics are the auto-
motive industry, IT security and search engine optimization’, IT trader, late 20s).
This group is always afraid of ‘missing something’ (female journalist, early 20s)
and of ‘being too slow to react to important issues’ (management consultant, mid
20s). For this reason, the IT trader visits ntv.de at least ‘ten times a day’. Business
and private contacts are well managed online (‘with friends via email, with col-
leagues via Skype’, journalist, late 20s). For the Virtuosi, the internet is a ‘media
centre’ (student, mid 20s), which enables them to accumulate cultural capital as
well as social capital. It is easier to find information online than from any other
source. The Virtuosi are young (mid to late 20s), male and generally upper middle
class (accordingly to their education, jobs and the interviewers’ impressions).
They are highly educated (all have graduate degrees or are currently enrolled in
study) and career-oriented (‘My job is my focus – I want to get ahead’, manage-
ment consultant, mid 20s). In most cases, they grew up in a large, well-to-do fam-
ily, enjoy a stable relationship and are active in their free time; however, their
focus in life is their profession and career. This type of internet user knows where
he/she comes from and where he/she wants to be in the future (in a high social
position). They have learned to use the internet to satisfy every possible (actual)
need and to establish their ambitions for the future. Using a broad variety of web
applications in the most efficient way to gain either cultural or social capital, it is
the Virtuosi who benefit most from being online.

The Professionals

The Professionals use the internet predominantly for work: a manager (aged 42)
checks information about business associates in the internet (‘you can have a look
at your business partners beforehand’), and a landscape architect (female, aged 38)
performs research for her boss. For a 41-year-old solicitor specializing in online
justice, the internet is his source of income (‘Without the internet I couldn’t do my
job’), and a mother (aged 32) uses a business network site to stay up to date (‘you
have to stay tuned to work’). The internet seems to be a tool with which to achieve
distinct aims and to ensure a special position in society, predominantly via the accu-
mulation of cultural capital. The Professionals belong to the upper middle class (all
are employed in graduate professions with a high social reputation), are aged
between 30 and the early 40s, and are well educated and predominantly male. They
enjoy their jobs, and self-fulfilment at work is as important as family (‘I enjoy my
job, I love my wife, and I like my life’, solicitor, aged 41). They use the internet to
maintain and improve their knowledge and therefore to stay in their high position
(especially important for the two mothers in this type). Cultural capital has been the
factor that gave them their professional career and is now part of their (profes-
sional) identity.

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878 Media, Culture & Society 32(5)

The Addicts

The Addicts are commonly online shortly after waking and, like the Virtuosi, stay
connected until late at night. The internet is not only a companion in daily life, but also
an important ‘place to be’ or even a ‘best friend’ (agency worker, aged 29). Especially
attractive to the Addicts are the possibilities of making contact and communicating
with others (‘I have already been on an online dating site and mingled with people’,
financial manager, aged 40). Because they have no strong connection to their families
on which they can rely, they use the internet to compensate for this lack of emotional
protection and security. A lonesome marketing employee depends on his online con-
tacts as he is new in town and knows few local people. This may involve four-hour-
long social network sessions or 24-hour LAN (local area network) parties, which
especially reinforce ‘extreme team playing’ (pupil, aged 17). Closely linked to the
desire for social contact is above all the feeling of companionship and of belonging to
a group (‘it’s a kind of togetherness’, pupil, aged 17, about his game clan). For the
Addicts, the internet is ‘like an addiction’ (banker, aged 35): ‘I could give up watch-
ing television, but not using the internet.’ In the social hierarchy, this type of user is
found in the middle class (employed or still in training). The Addicts are moderately
educated (O-levels and A-levels). They are all male, relatively young (from pupils to
mid 30s) and not entirely satisfied with their lives, as they believe they lag behind their
potential (‘I would rather do something different, in terms of occupation and my life’,
photographer, mid 30s). The Addicts are commonly raised as only children, do not
have a girlfriend and have a job which does not allow a lot of leisure time to establish
other than online contacts. As they mostly lack a tight social network, they use the
internet predominantly to increase their social capital, looking for both weak and
strong ties. The internet is clearly a support for the Addicts to satisfy (emotional) needs
momentarily and to divert them from deeper thoughts about their future lives.

The Aficionados

‘Always in the morning for two or three hours’, states a former municipal archivist
(aged 67) regarding internet use: ‘My wife is cooking and I am surfing the world-wide
web.’ Surfing is a means by which the pensioner collects things. When just a boy, he
started collecting all manner of items: firemen’s helmets, uniforms, swords and
medals. The internet connection serves this passion, which consumes basically all of
his time. For the pensioner, the internet is a ‘huge flea market’, but for a councilwoman
(aged 55) the internet provides the means to organize her political activities (‘I am a
party member and need the internet for arranging events’); for a female software devel-
oper (aged 55) it represents an opportunity to live out her obsession as a Bon Jovi fan
(‘My favourite website is the one of the Bon Jovi’s supporters club’). The Aficionados
were drawn to the web by their special interest. For this type of user, access to the inter-
net is not as important as for the Professionals: they are not dependent on the internet,
but would be reluctant to abandon it (‘The internet is fantastic. Without it, it wouldn’t
be possible to do all my individual fan journeys’, female software developer, aged 55).
The dominant motive in using the web is the accumulation of cultural capital. This
results in expert knowledge (‘I receive political newsletters with special information;
for example, budget speeches’, councilwoman, aged 55), and experiencing one’s own
competence (‘I am proud of my 800 Ebay ratings’, former municipal archivist, aged 67).
In this group of users, the modus operandi of internet use is limited exclusively to a
single passion (they rarely visit other websites). Even if they do not have a high status
in everyday life, thanks to their internet engagement, they have improved their position

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Meyen et al., The internet in everyday life 879

in a specialized field. The Aficionados are comparatively old and possess a low degree
of formal education (more CSE than A-levels), but they claim a high status for them-
selves in society.

The Companions

Without hesitation, the Companions could state their favourite sites as follows:
Facebook, Lokalisten, Wer-trifft-wen or Partyfans. For this type, internet usage is
focused on social network sites, where he/she maintains and collects social contacts
(‘You cannot always call everyone, but there you can drop a note once in a while’;
student, mid 20s). The Companions want to be ‘up to date’ regarding their environ-
ment (pupil, female, aged 16): to have a sound orientation and to compare themselves
with others (‘There you can take a look at other users’ pictures’, apprentice, early 20s).
The interviewees matched to this type make their contacts available online (to see and
to be seen), know exactly how many contacts they have on network sites (‘600 at one
stage’, pupil, aged 16; ‘120’, apprentice in his early 20s), and are familiar with each
other’s profiles, because these sites ‘contain many personal details of interest’ (pupil,
aged 17, female). Even if not the rule, several of the Companions made new friends
over the internet. A nursery teacher for handicapped children (aged 49) stated that
she flew to New York with an acquaintance who she met on FriendScout24. The
Companions search for anything: an occupation, a goal in life, even their own iden-
tity. Most of them are younger, still in training and looking for their position in soci-
ety. Compared with the Addicts, the internet is not of such great importance, mainly
because they possess an even larger circle of friends offline. The Companions are
female, young (or young at heart; most are under 30) and relatively well educated
(middle social position). By enhancing their social capital (staying in touch with ‘old’
acquaintances and finding new ones online), they acquire a good starting point for the
time they finally decide what to do in life. Meanwhile, they work or study in social
fields (e.g. tourism studies, nurse or flight attendant), where they can take advantage
of their social capital.

The Cautious

A little bit of Google, a little bit of Wikipedia and a little bit of online shopping: for
the Cautious, the internet is simply a means to an end within their daily routine – nothing
more. Persons of this type are only online several times a week (‘The internet is not
my favourite medium. Usually I am online in the evening but not every day’, occupa-
tional therapist, aged 41). Some of the Cautious stated that they could not live without
the internet, but the absence of the Web would not alter their daily routine: ‘Without
the internet I would return to walking to the bank or flip through a catalogue by hand’
(housewife, late 30s). The Cautious have relatively little competence in using the inter-
net (‘I am afraid of chatting online because I am not able to deal with it’, female events
manager, aged 38), and use search engines in particular to acquire cultural capital.
Housewives and mothers search for means to rid their gardens of snails, recipes
(housewife, aged 37) and cleaning hints (female education consultant, aged 26). The
employees search for information concerned with their daily job routine. This type
rarely writes emails (‘I prefer to fax’, pastor, aged 57) and is commonly unaware of
social network sites, forums or newsgroups (‘Xing and Facebook? I don’t know these’,
occupational therapist, aged 41). Accordingly, they prefer to use the internet for shopping:
‘Cosmetics via Douglas, medication via DocMorris, toys via Amazon’ (marketing

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880 Media, Culture & Society 32(5)

assistant, late 40s). The Cautious are older (mostly in their 40s), predominantly female,
belong to the lower middle class, enjoy a steady relationship and have children. Their
life focuses on family and leisure (‘My plan for the future is to build a house and start
a family’, education consultant, aged 26). They use the internet predominantly either
to retain their (job-related) cultural capital or to solve daily problems. In their life,
knowledge to help handle these everyday problems is crucial.

The Affiliated

The Affiliated go online to be in contact with relatives and friends, thereby overcom-
ing their distrust and fear of technology. ‘Before my son went to the US, I couldn’t
even start the computer’, said a housewife (aged 54). In addition to social relations, the
Affiliated use the internet to manage their daily routine. A young mother (aged 30) has
a daily video conference with her husband in New York, and a pensioner regularly
goes online to meet her grandchildren. This makes the internet ‘a beautiful addition’
(housewife, late 50s), but not ‘indispensable’; in short: an unobtrusive and flexible
replacement for the telephone and writing letters. This type is not proficient at using
the internet: ‘YouTube? Never heard of it’ (housewife, aged 54); ‘MySpace? No idea’
(office manager, 52, female). This type consists solely of females: young mothers,
housewives and retirees. In terms of belonging to this type, life experience and family
situation appear to be more important than age (‘When I am not working I have to do
the household and care about my family’, publishing clerk, aged 35). The Affiliated
have a lower level of education than the other types. They are strongly attached to their
home region (‘I am very close to my hometown. I don’t want to live anywhere else’,
housewife, aged 48) and above all they live for their families. If they work, they tend
to have a secretarial job. They use the internet to retain their social capital – i.e. their
bonding relations to their families – as they know that their adult children prefer to stay
in touch online. The Affiliated do not want to enhance their capital but to maintain it.

Influences on internet usage

The internet is a necessity in today’s world to succeed at work or complete an appren-

ticeship, and to maintain contact with friends and relatives in a mobile society.
Moreover, for many people the internet has become an essential aid in their daily rou-
tine. The typology of internet users shows that access to the internet says nothing
about the ‘practical sense’ in which people link with the net. Instead, the users vary
widely in terms of their ability to take full advantage of the internet. This ability, and
therefore also the relevance of the internet to daily life, is above all influenced by their
habitus (socialization, gender, personal environment) and their social position (capital).

Internet socialization and stage of life. Clearly, there is a gap in internet usage
according to the age of the users: none of the Virtuosi, for whom the internet is
indispensable, is older than 30 years, and none of the Affiliated, for whom the inter-
net plays only a minor role, is younger than 30 years. The other types also have a
distinct age component (the Cautious and Aficionados are relatively old, whereas
the Companions are young). We prefer, however, to attach the differences to inter-
net socialization, as assumed previously (Jones and Fox, 2009). Having grown up
with the internet makes a huge difference because special patterns of web use are,
for some users (i.e. the Virtuosi, the Addicts and the Companions), already a

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Meyen et al., The internet in everyday life 881

component of their habitus. Furthermore, the momentary life situation also influ-
ences internet usage (and is a better predictor of usage than age itself): those not
involved in a strong relationship, without children and searching for his/her own
identity (i.e. the Companions) seek social network sites and instant messaging to a
greater degree than do mothers and grandmothers (the Affiliated) or successful
paterfamilias (the Professionals). While these requirements vary with life stage, the
media repertoire of the Virtuosi might in fact represent a ‘precursor’ of a new media
behaviour (Livingstone and Helsper, 2007) – above all for people who have already
found their place in society and who possess a high level of education.
Gender. One of the surprising findings of this study is the strong influence of gen-
der on internet usage. Three of the identified types are dominated by males (the
Virtuosi, the Professionals, the Addicts) and three by females (the Companions,
the Cautious, the Affiliated). Considering internet repertoires, it is apparent that
differences are especially well explained in terms of gender-role expectations and
career ambitions. This finding is confirmed by the competence allocation in
respect of technology: even younger women stated that their husbands are respon-
sible for all things concerning the personal computer. Hargittai and Hinnant’s
(2008: 617) study of young adults’ internet use also showed that young women are
less likely to claim knowledge about online features. But there are also exceptions,
such as the female journalist who was one of the Virtuosi (her job requires that she
blogs frequently) or the women within the Professionals, striving for cultural cap-
ital to maintain their career (cf. Jackson, 2007).
Social position and career ambitions. Those who already occupy a high social
position (the Professionals) or who are striving to obtain one (the Virtuosi), and
who therefore concentrate on their career and improving their cultural capital,
use the internet more intensively and benefit more from it. Those who are look-
ing for social capital (the Companions and the Addicts) and who occupy an
intermediate social position can also benefit from the internet by satisfying their
need to be related, but they will hardly improve their social position in this way.
Those with a lower social position and no ambitions (the Affiliated and the
Cautious) use the internet predominantly to maintain their capital and there-
fore their (social) position.

Without any doubt, the ‘digital divide’ remains a reality. After reaching near-sat-
uration in internet usage, differences in terms of access have relocated to differences
in the type of contact with the internet. Following the uses and gratifications concept,
internet users all benefit in some way from the internet (at least to maintain their sta-
tus). However, the typology clearly reveals that those who already possess a high
social status can enhance their capital even more (Zillien and Hargittai, 2009); there-
fore, digital inequalities are maintained. An analysis of the younger and well-educated
user types (the Virtuosi, the Professionals, the Addicts and the Companions) shows
that they have already integrated internet usage in their habitus. Although their needs
will change over the next 20 or 30 years, it will be very interesting to observe if the
fact that internet use is a part of one’s habitus results in reduced digital inequalities.

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Michael Meyen is Professor of communication science at the Ludwig-Maximilians-

University Munich. Address: Institut für Kommunikationswissenschaft und
Medienforschung, LMU Munich, Schellingstraße 3, 80799 Munich, Germany. [email:
meyen@ifkw.lmu.de]

Senta Pfaff-Rüdiger is a research assistant in communication science at the Ludwig-

Maximilians-University Munich. Address: Institut für Kommunikationswissenschaft
und Medienforschung, LMU Munich, Schellingstraße 3, 80799 Munich, Germany.
[email: pfaff@ifkw.lmu.de]

Kathrin Dudenhöffer is a research assistant in business economics at the

University of Duisburg-Essen. Address: University of Duisburg-Essen,
Bismarckstr. 90, 47057 Duisburg, Germany. [email: kathrin.dudenhoeffer
@uni-due.de]

Julia Huss is a communication officer at AkzoNobel Car Refinishes BV. Address:

AkzoNobel Car Refinishes BV, Rijksstraatweg 3, PO Box 3, 170 BA Sassenheim,
The Netherlands. [Julia.Huss@akzonobel.com]

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