Survey Results 6d: Online Purchasing

A high amount of online purchasing of material objects was expected among TCKs. It is expected that commodities not available (or difficult to find) in Denmark would be purchased on the web, e.g. foreign music and pop-cultural artifacts particular in foreign countries.

The results show that all the respondents have tried purchasing things online, thus web trust is not a major issue. However, Natalie and Manuel mention that they are wary with purchasing things from websites outside of Denmark as they don’t feel that the websites in their host countries are safe enough. Manuel also submits that web purchasing hasn’t broken through in his host country yet, thus making it difficult for now.

The respondents mentioned purchasing the following items online:

• Flight tickets (8 respondents)
• Books (7 respondents)
• Computer hardware and software (expected, 6 respondents)
• DVDs, CDs (4 respondents)
• Cultural activities (movie tickets, concert tickets, hotel booking) (3 respondents)
• Mobile Phone Units
• Memberships
• Gift vouchers
• Clothes
• Medicine

The items purchased are generally bought for the reason that they are often cheaper on the Internet than elsewhere – a fact which is especially expected among a sample of mostly student respondents. Equally expected was the purchase of computer hard- and software and electronics among so many students of technology.

The purchasing of CDs and DVDs was lower than expected. Manuel explains that he travels often enough to buy them in “real shops”, and in general likes the tactile sensation of buying them there.

In general however, purchasing items from abroad isn’t practiced much at all, and especially not for the reason of "getting in touch with past homes" – Natalie admits that her clothes purchases have only been of the brand H&M – a brand very much omnipresent in most of Europe and especially in Denmark. The fact that she has seen it in real life, and that she knows the sizes, make it easy for her to buy something from that particular chain of clothes.

Survey Results 6c: News

All of the respondents check up on the news at least every couple of days. Five individuals check it many times a day, five check it at least once a day, and five check it every couple of days. Barbara refers to herself as a news-addict, and expresses that she finds it important to get a nuanced and diverse image of what is going on in the world. She is mostly interested in world news, and makes an effort in reading up on the same issue from many different points of view – she daily visits websites from Denmark, Germany, BBC and CNN.

Reasons why news websites are preferred to other media are that there is always access to them, that one can go directly to the article in which they are interested in, and that they make it possible to see an issue from the points of view of many different countries. Besides Barbara, the importance for this is also expressed by Abira, Nikolaj, Dan, Manuel and Giovanni. The high proficiency in languages is of course an important prerequisite for this to occur.

The most popular medium for news is, however, still TV. Natalie explains that it is the easiest just to sit back and relax in the evening and let the news come to her rather than have to look for it actively.

The rest of the respondents read or watch world or international news, while just six are interested in local or national news. Five are interested in reading about culture (music, books, events), equally five are interested in politics, nine are interested in science and technology, two are interested in finance.

While some admit to watching the news on the two main Danish channels (DR1 and TV2), many will regularly visit CNN or BBC for news updates on current events.