Newspaper reading as a form of cultural participation: The case of Colombia

Cultural participation and its usual forms have been almost exclusively studied for Western industrialised countries. We fill this gap by analysing newspaper reading in Colombia, where this form of cultural participation is particularly important and potentially enables significant crossovers at societal level. We apply an economic model with rational addiction to national micro data from the “Survey on Cultural Consumption 2012”. In a country where the habit of reading on paper still resists a relative diffusion of the Internet, we show the persistence of a certain participation gap even if with some distinctive features with respect to general cultural participation. The average profile of a Colombian newspaper reader corresponds to a middle-high educated white/mixed male in his working age, married/cohabiting and living in metropolitan areas. Regressions results show that both the likelihood and the intensity of reading newspapers are positively influenced by higher levels of education and having a habit of reading in general, a higher age, being a male and resident in major cities. From a policy perspective, our findings point to possible socio-economic leverages in order to lower such a participation gap, and hence contribute to foster more egalitarian conditions among the population.