Trends in the Cultural Consumption During the Pandemic – First Edition

In 2020 it was impossible to carry out the Cultural Consumption Barometer because the COVID-19-generated social and economic effects. This is why we replaced this very important study for the analysis of the cultural life in Romania with a study aimed at recording cultural consumption data at the level of actual as well as anticipated behaviour, on the basis of a new methodology.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the cultural life worldwide, and the impact generated by the social distancing was felt by cultural and creative sectors as a shock wave which has profoundly affected the cultural production, distribution and consumption in 2020 and will probably continue in the next years. The people’s emotional and rational reactions during crisis periods are hard to anticipate, and the diversity of the forms of manifestation records trends of radicalisation towards extremes in such times. This is the reason why we
believe it is very important to document the cultural practices during the pandemic and record the trends that may provide important information for a prognosis-type analysis. These data will potentially substantiate the medium- and long-term cultural policies and help cultural organisations’ managers to adjust their cultural strategies to the new socio-economic realities.

The first edition of the study Trends in the cultural consumption during the pandemic presents the respondents’ intention to spend their spare-time in the public space in the period July-December 2020, as well as comparisons to the level recorded in 2019. Furthermore, the study is focused on the identification of non-public cultural consumption practices during the isolation period and it approaches the matter of digital gaps. A special attention was paid to the consumption of radio and TV programmes, as well as to the differences recorded for this type of consumption as compared to the period prior to the start of the pandemic.

Interactively explore the results on: