Place and time of the media in the large Portuguese Catholic families

Abstract

Faced with the multiplication of electronic devices in the most diverse family contexts, we wanted to know what place and time that the large Portuguese Catholic families give to the internet, having as theoretical hypothesis that the religion determines the where and the how much those media devices are used. Data was collected from a national and a regional sample, using the mix methodology. The results showed that, at a national level, the media are located in spaces shared by all family; regarding time, with televison, are spent between thirty minutes to one horur per day, and, whith internet, the parents spend under thirty minutes
and the children between thirty minutes to one hour. In the regional study, we confirmed the options for the spaces shared and the time reduced – two hours by day for the two devices. The option for the non private space
permits the practice of a Catholic value: the sharing. The use of time connects with it’s meaning to these families: “big value”, “sacred”, “God given”, that should be used to “stay whith family”. So, it’s possible to confirm that the the Catholic Doctrine is crucial to understand the space and time of television and the Internet in the large Portuguese Catholic
families.