ents argue that they consume media from both sources because those from Germany provide them with general informa-tion and inform them about events worldwide (38%) and about their country of origin (31%), while those edited on the Costa del Sol offer them information that is useful in their daily life (23%) in our country, help them get to know the Costa del Sol (18%) and are in their language (17%).

This high rate of consumption of each media ecosystem may be due to the fact that they complement each other and only together can they satisfy the main interests and information needs of the German residents. According to 65% of the respondents, the media from their home country do not provide them with any information about the Costa del Sol. And the media from the Costa del Sol say very little about what is happening in their home country or on an international level. They add that they consume the media edited on the Costa del Sol because they provide them with information that can be useful for their daily life and about what is going on in the territory where they live, including different activities taking place in the region that can cover their leisure and cultural needs.

The specific contents of most interest to them are, in decreasing order, news about Spain (12%), local events (11%), local politics (9%), culture and leisure (10%). Thus, the results of this section indicate how a large majority of German residents show an interest in becoming integrated in life on the Costa del Sol and keeping up with what’s going on in the community to which they have decided to belong.

It is also noteworthy that although 76% of the respondents consider that the information obtained is useful for them to know more about the place where they live, 55% say that the information provided does not help them to solve their day-to-day problems as foreign residents on the Costa del Sol. Significantly, the majority of respondents said that they consume the media produced for the population under study on the Costa del Sol because it is in their language, and 59% stated that these media do not help them to learn Spanish. This data is relevant because in the surveys and discussion groups the participants stressed that not having a reasonable command of Spanish is one of the main barriers to their integration.

The results of the surveys show that the media most consumed by German residents are those published on paper. At present, four magazines and three newspapers are published entirely in German on the Costa del Sol, along with six other multilingual media. Among these print media the most consumed by the respondents are the Sur Deutsche Ausgabe and the Costa del Sol Nachrichten. This traditional press is perhaps the most read because it is regularly available in most press outlets that offer foreign publications, but we understand that the results may also be influenced by the fact that among those surveyed there is a high rate of retired people (59%), who are likely to be more inclined to read print material than online media9.

It should also be borne in mind that even though these two media must be paid for – unlike the general trend in the press for foreigners, which is free – they are still the only means of obtaining “full” information, where for the reader the