Project leaders: Prof. Dr. Friedrich Krotz, Prof. Dr. Andreas Hepp

Project members: Sabrina Böckmann, Monika Sowinska

The connection between the change of media and the change of culture is in the perspective of a (having still to be developed) Mediatization Theory not created causally, but is an effect of the “transmission belt” communication: While people adopt technologies they constitute these media by their communicative actions, thus shaping their social relationships and their social and cultural world in a modified way.

To grasp such developments and their meaning for human beings longitudinal studies are necessary. With their open design they can take into account not foreseeable changes on the level of media as well as on the level of social actions intertwined with media.

This project is based on the theory-leading concept of the Grounded Theory and aims at investigating four cohorts parallel (juveniles, young adults, older adults, older adults in transition from working to pensionable age) using the example of mediatization of social relationships. For this purpose one cohort is being researched over an extended period of time. At the same time we do comparative research and in-depth studies. Each of these individual studies will lead to a generation of types; later studies will be based on the developed types of the previous studies. The open survey instruments are identical, whereas the developed typologies and the theoretical conclusions, that they enabled to draw, will be compared.

Within the first two years this methodical design will be tested regarding its practicability for two cohorts (juveniles, adults aged 45 to 50 years), the balance between effort and benefit will be considered as well as the influence of the studies on the future acting and the perspectives of action of the respondents will be reviewed.

Research field: Action and interaction forms

Presentations

Böckmann, Sabrina/Sowinska, Monika: A qualitative longitudinal study about the mediatization of social relationships: Testing and improving the methods. Presentation at the World Social Science Forum 2013, 13.10.2013 – 15.10.2013 in Montreal, held 2013-10-13.

Böckmann, Sabrina/Sowinska, Monika/Krotz, Friedrich/Hepp, Andreas: Dynamiken von Mediatisierungsprozessen erfassen: Zum Potenzial von „Soziogrammen“ und „Mediagrammen“ im Rahmen einer qualitativen Längsschnittforschung. Presentation at the workshop „Mediatisierungsprozesse in der Empirie: Methodendesigns zur Analyse von ‚Wandel’“, 2013-09-19/20 at the University Münster, held 2013-09-19.