Between Two Screens: Media Consumption and Cultural Identity Among Students with Migration Background in Argeș County

Abstract

This paper examines how university students from families with migration backgrounds in Argeș County, Romania, navigate simultaneous exposure to media from two distinct cultural contexts. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with twelve students whose parents have lived and worked abroad for at least six months, the study applies the polymedia framework (Madianou and Miller, 2012) alongside acculturation theory (Berry, 1997) to explore patterns of media use, language choice, and identity negotiation. Findings
indicate that participants do not choose between two competing cultural media environments but construct a hybrid media space in which different platforms serve different identity functions. Romanian-language social media is used primarily for peer interaction and cultural continuity, while media associated with the country of origin is consumed mainly through family-mediated sharing on messaging applications. The tension between these two media streams is rarely experienced as conflict; instead, participants describe a form of selective integration that allows them to maintain multiple cultural
orientations simultaneously. These results contribute to the growing literature on transnational media consumption in non-metropolitan, post-migration communities and suggest implications for how communication studies programs in technical universities can address intercultural media literacy.