Abstract

The article aims at understanding some of the recent transformations produced by the digitalisation on cultural markets and consumption processes, with particular attention to the sectors of music, books and periodical press, and a special focus on the Italian context. Starting from a theoretical framework drawing on both consumer studies and Science and technology studies (Sts), in its first part the article sets some of the main phenomena related to the digitalisation of consumption in a wide perspective. Then, it considers the trajectories of digitalisation in the fields of music, magazines and books, pointing out the peculiarities of the Italian context and the differences with the United States. In the last part, the article discusses the implications of digitalisation on the experiences and the symbolic processes related to cultural consumption, considering two main issues: the evolution and the role of the «infrastructures of digital consumption» and the reconfiguration of the role of materiality of cultural contents in consumers' experience. In the end the ar ticle draws attention to the need to renew and extend theoretical tools to study cultural consumption in the age of digital media.