Project leaders: Prof. Dr. Bernd Schorb, Prof. Dr. Helga Theunert, Dr. Ulrike Wagner

Project assistants: Christa Gebel, Nadine Jünger

The project studies the ways in which adolescents at an age of 12 to 19 years use the media for information reception and production under conditions of mediatization and media convergence, two processes that support increasingly individualized patterns of media use. With this in mind, all relevant media and their interdependencies in structure and contents are taken into consideration, with a focus on the later media developments (e.g. Web 2.0, Social Web, Mobile Information Services). This brings into view not only selection and reception of information (may it be from a journalistic source or user generated content) but also the active obtainment, production and distribution of medial information in its motivational and situational context.

In order to examine not only individual media appropriation but also group specific divergences, semi-standardized quantitative measures and qualitative case studies will be carried out.

Based on the concept of media socialization as a complex interdependency between society, media and subject, the project aims to find answers to the question, how adolescents deal with medial information of social and political relevance. Taking into account differing conditions of development and socialization (age, gender, formal education, socio-cultural environment) the results will be evaluated with regard to their significance for a self-determined lifestyle and social participation of adolescents. Influences of convergence and mediatization processes will be discussed in contrast to earlier relevant studies. The results will establish an up-to-date basis for further differentiation of the dimensions of media competence as well as for media education practice.

Research field: Networks

Publications

Theunert, Helga/ Wagner, Ulrike (Eds.) (2011): Alles auf dem Schirm? Jugendliche in vernetzten Informationswelten. München: Kopaed, in preparation.

Theunert, Helga/ Schorb, Bernd (2010): Sozialisation, Medienaneignung und Medienkompetenz in der mediatisierten Gesellschaft. In: Hartmann, Maren/ Hepp, Andreas (Eds.): Die Mediatisierung der Alltagswelt. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag, pp. 243–254.

Wagner, Ulrike/Gebel, Christa (2014): Jugendliche und die Aneignung politischer Information in Online-Medien. Wiesbaden: Springer VS.

Wagner, Ulrike/ Theunert, Helga/ Gebel, Christa/ Schorb, Bernd (2012): Jugend und Information im Kontext mediatisierter Welten. In: Hepp, Andreas/ Krotz, Friedrich (Eds.): Mediatisierte Welten: Beschreibungsansätze und Forschungsfelder. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag, pp. 307-329.

Wagner, Ulrike (2011): Medienhandeln, Medienkonvergenz und Sozialisation. Empirie und gesellschaftswissenschaftliche Perspektiven. München: kopaed.

Presentations

Theunert, Helga/ Gebel, Christa/ Jünger, Nadine: Rezeption und Produktion von Information durch Jugendliche: Zur Erschließung komplexer Aneignungsprozesse in konvergenzgeprägten medialen Informationswelten. Presentation at the methodology workshop within the priority program "Qualitative Rezeptionsforschung, Ethnografie, Panel", 2011-07-01 until 2011-07-02 at the Leuphana Universität Lüneburg, held 2011-07-01.

Theunert, Helga: Jugend zwischen medialer Informationsflut und Informationsproduktion. Presentation at the expert conference "Alles auf dem Schirm? Jugendliche in vernetzten Informationswelten" 2010-11-12 at the "Bayerische Landeszentrale für neue Medien (BLM)" in Munich.

Wagner, Ulrike: Die Aneignung politischer Information. Partizipative Vergemeinschaftungsformen und politisches Engagement aus der Perspektive von Jugendlichen. Presentation at the 57th annual meeting of DGPuK „MediaPolis – Kommunikation zwischen Boulevard und Parlament“, 2012-05-16 until 2012-05-18 at the Freie Universität Berlin, held 2012-05-17.

Wagner, Ulrike/ Lampert, Claudia: Möglichkeiten und Grenzen qualitativer Panelstudien. Presentation at the methodology workshop within the priority program "Qualitative Rezeptionsforschung, Ethnografie, Panel", 2011-07-01 until 2011-07-02 at the Leuphana Universität Lüneburg, held 2011-07-01.

Wagner, Ulrike: Krieg im Fernsehen. Reale Gewalt in TV-Nachrichten und ihre Wirkung auf Kinder und Jugendliche, presentation at the meeting of the Akademie für politische Bildung Tutzing „Gewalt um jeden Preis? Nachrichten und Medienethik", 2011-05-21 in Tutzing.

Wagner, Ulrike: Informing Yourself – Young People’s Use of Information in
Mediatized Worlds. Presentation at the international conference "Mediatized Worlds: Culture and Society in a Media Age", 2011-04-13 until 2011-04-15 in Bremen, held 2011-04-15.